tent1
/tɛnt
/- Behind them hundreds of canvas tents stretch into the flat spaces of the desert.
- A hundred American soldiers pitched tents on the legation grounds to be ready for any contingency.
- The ground has also been used to tent unskilled labourers laying fiber optic cables.
- They tented the body up but a lot of the blood, footprints in the blood and forensic evidence got washed away.
- If you can't leave, get fresh air by tenting your head with a blanket at a slightly open window or break it with a chair.
- The venue will be part of a small tented complex including toilets and kiosks for sweets and refreshments.
- This is obvious from the enormous crowds that have descended on this tented village for the opening day.
- A colourful tented camp spread under these sylvan giants and virtually every tent was occupied.
- Garrett turned back to Kiv, tenting his fingers, tilting his head slightly to one side.
- Thomas laid down the pen and tented his fingers under his chin.
- Then he rested his elbows on his desk, tenting his fingers.
- It is our first night of camping, and I am tenting with Dolly, Patricia, and Joanne.
- But can they be the decisive factor when comparing summer tenting in the rocks of the Rockies to the rocks of Ontario's Canadian Shield?
Origin
Middle English: from Old French tente, based on Latin tent- 'stretched', from the verb tendere. The verb dates from the mid 16th century.
Tent goes back to Latin tendere ‘stretch’, since early tents were made of skins or cloth stretched on poles. It is also the source of tense (late 17th century) in the sense ‘stretched, tight’, and tension (mid 16th century) first found as a medical term for the condition or feeling of being physically strained. To be on tenterhooks is to be in a state of nervous suspense. A tenter, from the same Latin root as tent, is a frame on which fabric can be held taut so that it does not shrink while drying or being manufactured, and tenterhooks were the hooks or bent nails used to fasten woollen cloth in position. This tightening procedure had obvious appeal as an image for person in difficulties or suspense, at first on tenters and later on tenterhooks. The phrase has survived long after real tenterhooks disappeared.
Rhymes
tent2
/tɛnt/Origin
Late Middle English: from Spanish tinto 'deep-coloured', from Latin tinctus 'dyed, stained', from the verb tingere.
tent3
/tɛnt/Origin
Late Middle English (also denoting a surgical probe): from Old French tente, from tenter 'to probe', from Latin temptare 'handle, test, try'.