tent1top to bottom: A-frame, dome, and cabin tents
tent 1
(tĕnt)n.1. A portable shelter made of fabric or other material stretched over a supporting framework of poles and usually stabilized or secured to the ground with cords and stakes.
2. Something resembling such a portable shelter in construction or outline: "her hair a dark tent, her face a thin triangle" (Anne Tyler).
v. tent·ed, tent·ing, tents
v.intr. To camp in a tent.
v.tr.1. To form a tent over.
2. To supply with or put up in tents.
[Middle English, from Old French
tente, from Vulgar Latin
*tendita, from feminine past participle of Latin
tendere,
to stretch out; see
ten- in
Indo-European roots.]
tent 2
(tĕnt)n. A small cylindrical plug of lint or gauze used to keep open or probe a wound or an orifice.
tr.v. tent·ed,
tent·ing,
tents To keep (a wound or orifice) open with such a plug.
[Middle English tente, from Old French, from tenter, to probe, from Latin tentāre, to feel, try; see tentative.]
tent 3
(tĕnt)tr.v. tent·ed,
tent·ing,
tents Scots 1. To pay heed to.
2. To attend; wait on.
[Middle English tenten, from tent, attention, short for attent, from Old French attente, from Vulgar Latin *attendita, from feminine past participle of Latin attendere, to wait on; see attend.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.