tent

• enPR: tĕnt, IPA^(key): /tɛnt/
  • (pin–pen merger) IPA^(key): /tɪnt/
    • Homophone: tint

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (US-Inland North)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛnt

From Middle English tente, borrowed from Old French tente, from Vulgar Latin *tenta (“tent”), from the feminine of Latin tentus, ptp. of tendere (“to stretch, extend”). Displaced native Middle English tild, tilt (“tent, tilt”), from Old English teld (“tent”).

tent (plural tents)

1. A pavilion or portable lodge consisting of skins, canvas, or some strong cloth, stretched and sustained by poles, used for sheltering people from the weather.

   We were camping in a three-man tent.

2. (archaic) The representation of a tent used as a bearing.
3. (Scotland) A portable pulpit set up outside to accommodate worshippers who cannot fit into a church.
   • 1824, James Hogg, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner:

     A splendid tent was erected on the brae north of the town, and round that the countless congregation assembled.

4. A trouser tent; a piece of fabric, etc. protruding outward like a tent.
   • 2013, Nathan Lapointe, A Strange New World

     […] feeling his erection making a tent in his pants.

tent (third-person singular simple present tents, present participle tenting, simple past and past participle tented)

1. (intransitive) To go camping.

   We’ll be tented at the campground this weekend.

2. (cooking) To prop up aluminum foil in an inverted "V" (reminiscent of a pop-up tent) over food to reduce splatter, before putting it in the oven.
3. (intransitive) To form into a tent-like shape.

   The sheet tented over his midsection.

• camp
• lean-to
• lodge
• pavilion, pavillion
• pitch
• tarp

Middle English tent (“attention”), aphetic variation of attent (“attention”), from Old French atente (“attention, intention”), from Latin attenta, feminine of attentus, past participle of attendere (“to attend”).

tent (third-person singular simple present tents, present participle tenting, simple past and past participle tented)

1. (archaic, Britain, Scotland, dialectal) To attend to; to heed
2. (archaic, Britain, Scotland, dialectal) to guard; to hinder.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Halliwell to this entry?)

tent (plural tents)

1. (archaic, Britain, Scotland, dialectal) Attention; regard, care.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Lydgate to this entry?)

2. (archaic) Intention; design.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Halliwell to this entry?)

Middle English tente (“a probe”), from Middle French tente, deverbal of tenter, from Latin tentāre (“to probe, test”), alteration of temptāre (“to test, probe, tempt”).

tent (plural tents)

1. (medicine) A roll of lint or linen, or a conical or cylindrical piece of sponge or other absorbent, used chiefly to dilate a natural canal, to keep open the orifice of a wound, or to absorb discharges.
2. (medicine) A probe for searching a wound.

tent (third-person singular simple present tents, present participle tenting, simple past and past participle tented)

1. (medicine, sometimes figuratively) To probe or to search with a tent; to keep open with a tent.

   to tent a wound

   • Shakespeare

     I'll tent him to the quick.

Spanish tinto (“deep-colored”), from Latin tinctus, past participle of tingo (“to dye”). More at tinge, tint, tinto. Compare claret (“French red wine”), also from color.

tent (plural tents)

1. (archaic) A kind of wine of a deep red color, chiefly from Galicia or Malaga in Spain; called also tent wine, and tinta.

• claret, hock, sack

• Nett, nett

From Middle Dutch tente, from Old French tente, from Vulgar Latin *tenta or *tenda.

• IPA^(key): /tɛnt/

• audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: tent
• Rhymes: -ɛnt

tent m (plural tenten, diminutive tentje n)

1. tent (for camping, special occasions, etc.)
2. a pavillion
3. (informal, Dutch, often in compounds) a building, especially one used for commercial purposes

• (pavillion): paviljoen
• (building): keet

• circustent
• hottentottententententoonstelling
• kermistent

tent

1. past participle of tenne

tent

1. short