tent / tent/ • n. a portable shelter made of cloth, supported by one or more poles and stretched tight by cords or loops attached to pegs driven into the ground. ∎  Med. short for oxygen tent.• v. 1. [tr.] cover with or as if with a tent: the garden had been completely tented over for supper. ∎  arrange in a shape that looks like a tent: Tim tented his fingers. ∎  [as adj.] (tented) composed of or provided with tents: they were living in large tented camps.2. [intr.] (esp. of traveling circus people) live in a tent.

tent.
1. Portable tension structure in which the supports (usually a wooden pole or poles) both carry and are held in place by a membrane of canvas, skins, or cloth stretched over them and fixed by means of pegs driven into the ground.

2. Portable compression structure in which a self-supporting frame or armature is constructed over which a protective membrane is draped. Tents are of great antiquity as a type, and very elaborate examples have evolved for religious, ceremonial, or status reasons. Tensile structures, developed from tent-like forms, have been experimented with by several architects in C20.

Bibliography

Drew (1979);
Faegre (1979);
Prussin et al. (1995);
Jane Turner (1996)

tent1 portable shelter of canvas, etc. XIII. — (O)F. tente :- Rom. *tenta n. pl. used as fem. of *tentum, for L. tentōrium tent, f. tent-, pp. stem of tendere stretch, TEND2, based on the use of phr. pelles tendere stretch out skins, in the sense ‘pitch tents’.
Hence tent vb., tented (see -ED1, -ED2) XVII.

tent (tent) n.
1. an enclosure of material (usually transparent plastic) around a patient in bed, into which a gas or vapour can be passed as part of treatment. oxygen t. a tent into which oxygen is passed.

2. a piece of dried vegetable material, usually a seaweed stem, shaped to fit into an orifice, such as the cervical canal. As it absorbs moisture it expands, dilating the orifice.

tent2 †probe; roll of material for searching a wound XXV. — (O)F. tente, f. tenter :- L. temptāre feel, try, TEMPT.