n. & v.
—n.
1 a portable shelter or dwelling of canvas, cloth, etc., supported by a pole or poles and stretched by cords attached to pegs driven into the ground.
2 Med. a tentlike enclosure for control of the air supply to a patient.
—v.
1 tr. cover with or as with a tent.
2 intr. a encamp in a tent. b dwell temporarily.
Phrases and idioms:
tent-bed a bed with a tentlike canopy, or for a patient in a tent. tent coat (or dress) a coat (or dress) cut very full. tent-fly (pl. -flies)
1 a flap at the entrance to a tent.
2 a piece of canvas stretched over the ridge-pole of a tent leaving an open space but keeping off sun and rain. tent-peg any of the pegs to which the cords of a tent are attached. tent-pegging a sport in which a rider tries at full gallop to carry off on the point of a lance a tent-peg fixed in the ground.
tent-stitch
1 a series of parallel diagonal stitches.
2 such a stitch.
Etymology: ME f. OF tente ult. f. L tendere stretch: tent-stitch may be f. another word
2.
n. a deep-red sweet wine chiefly from Spain, used esp. as sacramental wine.
Etymology: Sp. tinto deep-coloured f. L tinctus past part.: see TINGE
3.
n. Surgery a piece (esp. a roll) of lint, linen, etc., inserted into a wound or natural opening to keep it open.
Etymology: ME f. OF tente f. tenter probe (as TEMPT)
Useful english dictionary. 2012.