tent

Meanings

Noun

• 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.
• The representation of a tent used as a bearing.
• A portable pulpit set up outside to accommodate worshippers who cannot fit into a church.
• A trouser tent; a piece of fabric, etc. protruding outward like a tent.
• Attention; regard, care.
• Intention; design.
• 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.
• A probe for searching a wound.
• A kind of red wine of a deep red color, chiefly from Galicia or Malaga in Spain.

Verb

• To go camping.
• 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.
• To form into a tent-like shape.
• To attend to; to heed
• to guard; to hinder.
• To probe or to search with a tent; to keep open with a tent.

Origin

• From Middle English tente, borrowed from Old French tente, from Vulgar Latin *tenta ("tent"), from the feminine of Latin tentus, ptp. of tendere. Displaced native Middle English tilt ("tent, tilt"), from Old English teld ("tent"). Compare Spanish tienda ("store, shop; tent").
• From Middle English tent ("attention"), aphetic variation of attent, from Old French atente ("attention, intention"), from Latin attenta, feminine of attentus, past participle of attendere.
• From Middle English tente ("a probe"), from Middle French tente, deverbal of tenter, from Latin tentāre ("to probe, test"), alteration of temptāre.
• From Spanish tinto ("deep-colored"), from Latin tīnctus, past participle of tingo. More at tinge. tint, and tinto. Compare claret, also from color.