Forms: 3–6 tente, (5 teinte, teynte, 5–6 tentt(e, 6 tenthe), 4– tent. [a. OF. tente (12th c. in Godef., Compl.):—L. tenta, pl. of tentum, pa. pple. of tendĕre to stretch; = med.L. tenta, tentum tent (in Du Cange); cf. also It., Pr. tenda, Sp. tienda, med.L. tenda (13th c. in Du Cange), assimilated to tendĕre.]
1. A portable shelter or dwelling of canvas (formerly of skins or cloth), supported by means of a pole or poles, and usually extended and secured by ropes fastened to pegs which are driven into the ground; used by travellers, soldiers, nomads, and others; a pavilion; also, a similar shelter erected on a travelling boat or wagon.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 4156. Hii come to barbesflet & piȝte þer bi syde Hor tentes & hor pauilons.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 7709. He sett his tentes in a dale. Ibid., 7714. Þai went, Vn-to þe kings aun tent.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 67. Þar loges & þare tentis vp þei gan bigge.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), III. 125. Antecrist schal be slawe in his owne tent in þe mount Olyuete.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 10190. The troiens … Takyn þere tenttes, turnyt hom vnder.
c. 1450. Merlin, iii. 46. How he wolde come be nyght hym-self to his teynte.
1535. Coverdale, 1 Kings xii. 16. Get the to thy tentes [Wyclif, Turne aȝen into thi tabernaclis] O Israel [Geneva, 1611, To your tents, O Israel].
1552. Huloet, Tent or bouthe in a fayre or market.
a. 1570. in Feuillerat, Revels Q. Eliz. (1908), 407. Comptroller of her graces Revelles tenthes & pavillions.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., V. iii. 7. Vp with my Tent, heere wil I lye to night, But where to morrow?
1617. Moryson, Itin., II. 82. The weather grew so extreme, as it blew downe all our Tents, and tore them in pieces.
1717. Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett. to Abbé Conti, 17 May. The Sultan is already gone to his tents, and all his Court.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, I. 285. Friday and I, in about two Hours Time, made a very handsome Tent, cover’d with old Sails.
1844. Longf., Day is done, 43. The cares, that infest the day, Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs, And as silently steal away.
1888. Doughty, Travels in Arabia Deserta, I. viii. 234. I told them [the Howeytát] I had visited their country, and lodged in their circle-villages of tents, and seen how they plough the wild sand with camels.
1844. [see PITCH v.1 4].
† b. A sheet or screen of canvas or the like.
1572. in Feuillerat, Revels Q. Eliz. (1908), 179. Hanging up Tentes to keepe away the wynde & snow from dryving into the hall.
2. transf. Something likened to or resembling a tent; spec. b. in Photogr., a curtained box serving as a portable dark-room; c. the silken web of a tent-caterpillar.
1599. Davies, Immort. Soul, IV. xxi. Heav’ns wide-spreading Tent.
1862. B. Taylor, Poet’s Jrnl., III. Myst. Summer, 52. Its little bell expands, for me, A tent of silver lily fair.
d. The name given to a local ‘lodge’ or ‘habitation’ of the Rechabites; also of the Zionists.
[From the tents in which the ancient Rechabites dwelt, Jer. xxxv. 7, and those in which Israel dwelt in the wilderness.]
1886. Rechabite Mag., July, 151 (Cassell). The sick funds in the possession of the various tents.
1897. E. Reich, in 19th Cent., Aug., 261. At the head of religious Zionism are the numerous ‘Tents’ of the ‘Lovers of Zion.’ Ibid., Oct., 633. The English Association, known as the Chovevi Zion … has 35 established ‘Tents,’ spread through the length and breadth of the United Kingdom.
e. Applied to a hut.
a. 1873. Deutsch, Rem. (1874), 178. The people dwelling during their lifetime in tents of mud.
1887. Hall Caine, Deemster, xxxvii. 247. A little disjointed gipsy encampment of mud-built tents pitched on the bare moor.
3. fig. An abode, residence, habitation, dwelling-place; esp. in phrases to have, pitch one’s tent(s.
c. 1366. Chaucer, A. B. C., 9. Bountee so fix hath in þin herte his tente.
1535. Coverdale, Ps. lxxxiii[i]. 10. To dwell in the tentes of the vngodly [1611 tents of wickednesse].
1624. Davies, Psalm xv. Lord! who shall dwell in thy bright tent with Thee?
1700. Dryden, Theodore & Hon., 59. To Chassis’ pleasing plains he took his way, There pitched his tents, and there resolved to stay.
1827. Edin. Weekly Jrnl., 28 Feb. They … spoke of the theatre as of the tents of sin.
1887. Hall Caine, Coleridge, iv. Roscoe invited him to pitch his tent in Liverpool.
4. Sc. A portable pulpit set up in the open air for the preacher on sacramental or other occasions when the worshippers are too numerous to be accommodated in the church.
1678. Lady Methven, Lett., in Ladies of Covt. (1853), Introd. 34. They had their tent set up upon your ground.
1689. in Faithful Contendings (1780), 381. A tent being set up before, Mr. Shields continued in his lecture.
1785. Burns, Holy Fair, xiv. But, hark! the tent has chang’d its voice.
1837. Lockhart, Scott, May an. 1819. Every kirk in the neighbourhood being left empty when it was known he was to mount the tent at any country sacrament.
1885. Edgar, Old Ch. Life Scot., 177. Besides a church, every parish required a tent. This … was not a tabernacle of canvas for sheltering the worshippers, but a moveable pulpit made of wood for the preacher to stand in.
5. attrib. and Comb. a. Simple attrib. ‘of, consisting of, belonging to, used in, dwelling in, a tent or tents,’ as tent accommodation, -cloth, -curtain, -fashion, -fellow, -frame, -house (also fig.), -life, -mate, -pole, -post, -revival, -roof, -rope, -sail (SAIL sb.1 7), -school, -skirt, -staff, -table, -tomb, -wagon; objective and obj. genitive, as tent-holder, -keeper, -owner, -pitcher, -pitching; instrumental, etc., as tent-clad, -dotted, -dwelling, -like adjs.; also, in sense 4, tent-preaching, -reader, -sermon.
1780[?]. W. Carter, Disbanded Subaltern, 22. Close at the bottom of this *tent-clad hill.
1552. Huloet, *Tente clothes, wherwith tentes are couered.
1836. Uncle Philip’s Convers. Whale Fishery, 13. The sinews … they use in sewing their coats and tent cloths.
1648. Owen, Serm. Hab. iii. 1–9, Wks. 1851, VIII. 98. The *tent-dwelling Arabians.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., II. xvi. 176. Their neat canvas housing rigged *tent-fashion.
1904. Expositor, April, 311. Men from all parts of Greece were *tent fellows and messmates.
1905. Daily Chron., 22 Aug., 6/5. At a largely-attended meeting of *tent-holders at Southend … it was pointed out that, according to legal advice, the tent-owners were in the position of trespassers.
1635. Balcarres Proclam., No. 1431. *Tent-keeper.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. xix. (Roxb.), 164/1. Dayly pay … Pioners each 1s. Tent Keepers each 18d.
1858. G. Rhodes (title), Tents and *Tent-Life, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time.
1864. Trevelyan, Compet. Wallah. (1866), 114. Tent-life in the winter months is very enjoyable.
1840. Longf., Spanish Stud., III. v. Behold, how beautiful she stands Under the *tent-like trees!
1695. trans. Colbatch’s New Lt. Chirurg. put out, 48. Seeing some of his *Tent-mates, I asked them if he was distracted?
1875. Sir T. Seaton, Fret Cutting, 77. Tell your *tent-pitcher to give me two long tent-pins and two short ones.
1706. Lond. Gaz., No. 4189/4. Out of the Albion Frigat,… Pictures, *Tent-Poles.
1855. Milman, Lat. Chr., V. 13. The Mamelukes … tied him to a *tent-post with his hands behind his back.
1825. Jamieson, s.v., Scottish Presbyterians … still feel some degree of partiality to *tent-preaching.
a. 1722. Pennecuik, Wks. (1815), 345 (E.D.D.). He was *tent-reader of our service book.
1876. S. H. Tyng, in Under Canvas, 220, heading. Final Sermon in Connection with the Gospel *Tent Revival.
1424. Mem. Ripon (Surtees), III. 151. Pro ij wellrapis, ij *tenterapis et j veylrape cum j corda … 5s.
1828–40. Tytler, Hist. Scot. (1864), I. 152. Douglas … penetrated to the royal tent, [and] cut the tent-ropes.
1892. Rider Haggard, Nada, 2. The shivering natives … took refuge on the second waggon, drawing a *tent-sail over them.
1909. Jrnl. Educ., April, 294/2. South Australia…. A new plan for the education of children in remote parts of the State…. The first *tent school has already been established and is to be found in the Hundred of Shannon, on Eyre Peninsula.
1805. J. Ramsay, Scot. & Scotsm. in 18th C. (1888), II. i. 25. *Tent-sermons were retained by general consent.
1896. ‘M. Field,’ Attila, IV. 106. At last they caught the *tent-skirt in their hands And entered one by one.
1864. Boutell, Her. Hist. & Pop., xxi. § 11 (ed. 3), 369. The *tent-staff and pennon all or.
1893. Month, April, 523. I live in a *tent-wagon.
b. Special Combs.: tent-barge, a barge having a tent-like canvas awning; tent-bottom, a board floor fitted to a tent; tent-caterpillar, the gregarious larva of a North American bombycid moth, Clisiocampa, which spins a tent-like web; tent-fly: see FLY sb.2 4 b; also, an exterior sheet stretched over the ridge-pole so as to cover the ordinary tent-roof with an air-space between; tent-man, (a) a tent-dweller; (b) one who has charge of a tent; tent-master: see quot.; tent-pin = TENT-PEG; tent-tree, a species of screw-pine: see quot. See also TENT-BED, TENT-DOOR, etc.
1796. Stedman, Surinam, II. xix. 71. A decent *tent-barge with six oars.
1902. Fortn. Rev., June, 938. The wooden *tent-bottoms are placed outside the tents and thoroughly scrubbed three times a week.
1884. Roe, Nat. Ser. Story, iv. A colony of jays would soon destroy all the *tent-caterpillars.
1901. Board Agric. Leaflet, No. 69. 1. Two species of so-called ‘Tent Caterpillars’ are frequently found on various fruit trees.
1897. H. Porter, in Cent. Mag., April, 831. A hospital *tent-fly was stretched in front of the office tent so as to make a shaded space.
1830. L. Wallace, Ben-Hur, 231. Drink, for this is the fear-naught of the *tentmen.
1660. Hexham, Een Tenten-meester, a *Tent-master, or a Marshall of a Campe.
1807. Wilkinson, in Pike, Sources Mississ., II. (1810), App. 24. We found … many *tent-pins made of wood.
1875. [see tent-pitcher in a].
1884. Miller, Plant-n., *Tent-tree, of Lord Howe’s Island, Pandanus Forsteri.
Hence Tentful, as many as fill a tent; Tentwards adv., towards a tent; Tentwise adv.1, in the manner or shape of a tent.
1897. Daily News, 24 May, 6/5. The whole *tentful of people rose and the gentlemen reverently uncovered.
1893. Westm. Gaz., 7 Oct., 2/1. Four weird figures tramping *tentwards after a long day abroad.
1530. Tindale, Exodus, Table Expound. Words, Tabernacle, an house made *tentwise, or as a pauelion.
1846. Mrs. Gore, Sk. Eng. Char. (1852), 39. A genteel youth … whose straight, yellow hair is combed up, tent-wise, on the top of his head.
