Definition of "tent" in English

noun

1. 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.

   • We were camping in a three-man tent.
   • We bought a new tent that can be put up in five seconds, but it took about twenty minutes to take it down and pack it away.

2. (archaic) The representation of a tent used as a bearing.

3. (Scotland) A portable pulpit set up outside to accommodate worshippers who cannot fit into a church.

4. A trouser tent; a piece of fabric, etc. protruding outward like a tent.

verb

1. (intransitive) To go camping.

   • We’ll be tenting at the campground this weekend.

2. (cooking) 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.

3. (intransitive) To form into a tent-like shape.

   • The sheet tented over his midsection.

4. Synonym of fumigate.

verb

1. (archaic, UK, Scotland, dialect) To attend to; to heed

   • 14th century, anonymous, The Romance of Syr Tryamoure He let hur have wemen at wylle, To tent hur, and that was skylle, And brought hur to bede

2. (archaic, UK, Scotland, dialect) to guard; to hinder.

noun

1. (archaic, UK, Scotland, dialect) Attention; regard, care.

2. (archaic) Intention; design.

noun

1. (medicine) 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.

2. (medicine) A probe for searching a wound.

verb

1. (medicine, sometimes figurative) To probe or to search with a tent; to keep open with a tent.

   • to tent a wound

noun

1. (archaic) A kind of red wine of a deep red color, chiefly from Galicia or Malaga in Spain.