tent

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

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (US, Inland Northern American):

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• Rhymes: -ɛnt
• Homophone: tint (pin–pen merger)

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”), or contracted from *tendita as an alternate past participle. Displaced native Middle English tild, tilt (“tent, tilt”), from Old English teld (“tent”). Compare Spanish tienda (“store, shop; tent”).

tent (plural tents)

2. 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.

   We bought a new tent that can be put up in five seconds, but it took about twenty minutes to take it down and pack it away.

3. (archaic) The representation of a tent used as a bearing.
4. (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.

5. 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 tenting 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.

4. Synonym of fumigate.

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

From 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”). Compare tend, from an aphetic variation of attend

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

1. (archaic, UK, Scotland, dialect) To attend to; to heed
   • 14th century, anonymous, The Romance of Syr Tryamoure

     He let hur have wemen at wylle,
     To tent hur, and that was skylle,
     And brought hur to bede

2. (archaic, UK, Scotland, dialect) to guard; to hinder.

tent (plural tents)

1. (archaic, UK, Scotland, dialect) Attention; regard, care.
   • a. 1451, John Lydgate, The Prohemy of a Marriage betwixt and Olde Man and a Yonge Wife, and the Counsail &c.:

     Lo ! lo ! my frend , take tent to this womman

2. (archaic) Intention; design.
   • a. 1300, anonymous author, Cursor Mundi:

     A-pon þe feild his fader went
     And soght abel wit al his tent

From 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)

2. (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.
3. (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 figurative) To probe or to search with a tent; to keep open with a tent.

   to tent a wound

   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:

     I'll tent him to the quick.

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

tent (plural tents)

2. (archaic) A kind of red wine of a deep red color, chiefly from Galicia or Malaga in Spain.

   Synonyms: tent wine, tinta

   Coordinate terms: claret, hock, sack

• “tent”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• 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 f (plural tenten, diminutive tentje n)

1. tent (for camping, special occasions, etc.)
2. pavillion

   Synonym: paviljoen

3. (informal, Dutch, often in compounds) a building, especially one used for commercial purposes; a joint

   Synonym: keet

• Negerhollands: tente
• → Sranan Tongo: tenti
  • → Caribbean Javanese: thenthi
  • → Lokono: tenti

tent

1. alternative form of tenthe

tent

1. alternative form of tenthe

tent

1. past participle of tenne

Inherited from Middle English tenth, tenthe.

tent

1. tenth

• “tend, adj., n.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, retrieved 7 June 2024, reproduced from William A[lexander] Craigie, A[dam] J[ack] Aitken [et al.], editors, A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue: […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1931–2002, →OCLC.
• “tent, adj.1, n.1.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, retrieved 7 June 2024, reproduced from W[illiam] Grant and D[avid] D. Murison, editors, The Scottish National Dictionary, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association, 1931–1976, →OCLC.

tent

1. short

Clipping of tentamen. Compare Finnish tentti.

tent c

1. (Finland, colloquial) exam, examination (test)

   Synonyms: tentamen, tenta

• tentlitteratur