Forms: 4–5 teyntur, 5 tayntour, tentowre, 5–6 tentour, 5–7 taynter, teynter, tenture, 5–8 tentor, 6 teynto(u)r, -tree, tentar, 6–7 tainter, teinter, -or, 6– tenter. [The varieties of the suffix make the exact origin somewhat obscure: the forms in -ur, -our, -or, -er, -ar, point to an AF. or OF. *tentour, L. *tentōr-em stretcher, agent-n. from tend-ĕre to stretch, which suits the sense; but neither the OF. nor the L. word is known in the sense ‘tenter.’
The rare form tenture is equated by Promp. Parv. with L. tentūra, but this ought to mean the process of stretching or its product: cf. F. tenture action of stretching, also tapestry hangings; which does not agree with the sense of ‘stretching instrument or apparatus.’ On the other hand, if the word were merely an Eng. agent-n. from TENT v.3, it would be difficult to account for the various forms of the ending. The forms in teynt-, taynt-, teint-, taint- also offer difficulty, suggesting some association with F. teint dye.]
1. A wooden framework on which cloth is stretched after being milled, so that it may set or dry evenly and without shrinking. Also † a pair of tenters (obs. rare) and in pl. form tenters.
Formerly tenters of the length of a web of cloth stood in rows in the open air in tenter-fields or grounds, and were a prominent feature in cloth-manufacturing districts; but the process of drying and stretching is now generally done much more rapidly in tenter-houses by tenter- or tentering-machines.
13[?]. Charter Holy Ghost (Vernon MS.), in Hampole’s Wks. I. 361. Whon þe Iewes hedden þus nayled Criston þe cros as men doþ cloþ on a tey[n]tur [v.rr. streynour, rakke].
1408. Nottingham Rec., II. 60. Johannes London occupat unum croftum cum taynters.
1435. Coventry Leet Bk., 172. No walker off the Cite of Couentre … Shall Rakke no Clothe on the Tey[n]tur that schall be solde ffor wette-clothe.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 489/1. Tenture, for clothe (S. tentowre),… Ug. V. in V. tentura (P. constrictorium).
1483. Act 1 Rich. III., c. 8 § 1. Many of the seid Clothes … ben sett uppon Tayntours and drawen out in leyngth and brede.
1495. Nottingham Rec., III. 284. Accyon off trespas for takynge vp teynters.
1530. Palsgr., 280/1. Tentar for clothe, tend, tende.
a. 1535. Fisher, Wks., I. 394. Neuer anye Parchement skynne was more strayghtlye stratched by strength vpon the tentors.
1548. Nottingham Rec., IV. 94. For a gardeyn and a peyre of teyntors at the Bridgende.
a. 1552. Leland, Itin., I. 93. A great Numbre of Tainters for Wollen Clothes.
1592. Greene, Upst. Courtier, in Harl. Misc. (Malh.), II. 242. That he drawe his cloth and pull it passing hard when he sets it vpon the tenters.
1642. in J. Lister’s Autobiog. (1842), 78. The cannon … beat down the barrs of a tenter.
1646. Sir J. Temple, Irish Rebell., 95. [He] led the boy to his Fathers tentors, and there hanged him.
1657. C. Beck, Univ. Charac., L vj. A tenture or tenter to stretch cloth in.
1727–41. Chambers, Cycl., Tenter, Tryer, or Prover,… in the cloth manufactory … is usually about four feet and a half high, and for length exceeds that of the longest piece of cloth.
1791. Hamilton, Berthollet’s Dyeing, II. II. II. v. 108. It is dried on the tenters in the open air.
1849. C. Brontë, Shirley, ii. The cloth was torn from his tenters and left in shreds in the field.
fig. 1602. Dekker, Satirom., Wks. 1873, I. 247. O Night … That like a cloth of cloudes dost stretch thy limbes; Vpon the windy Tenters of the Ayre.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., IX. xvii. § 4. Albeit his Words intended no Treason … yet … the tenture of the Law made them his death.
1674. N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., To Rdr. As the one had wrackt and limm’d my thoughts, with endless tenters and boundless retchings out.
† 2. = TENTER-HOOK 1. Obs.
1598. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. i. III. Furies, 708. Then Avarice all-arm’d in hooking Tenters.
1678. Massacre in Ireland, 3. Two Boys [were] wounded and hung upon Butchers Tenters.
1743. Phil. Trans., XLII. 425. The little Papillæ … on the Surface of the Arms assist them like so many Hooks or Tenters to hold their Worms barely by touching them.
1795. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Liberty’s last Squeak, Wks. 1812, III. 422. And hang their Hearts, like Butcher’s Meat, on tenters.
1810. Crabbe, Borough, I. 130. Fences … (With tenters tipp’d) a strong repulsive bound.
fig. 1635. Quarles, Embl., I. v. 17. Abused Statutes had no tenters, And men could deal secure without indentures.
1849. J. Sterling, in Fraser’s Mag. XXXIX. 416. Slight Folly’s pen, not Passion’s burning tenter, Tears up our roots.
† b. transf. A hooked organ or part. Obs.
1613–6. W. Browne, Brit. Past., II. i. Thornes and tangling bushes Whose tenters sticking in her garments sought … to help her.
1817. Kirby & Sp., Entomol. (1818), II. xxiii. 323. Palms, pattens, or soles [of flies’ feet] … beset underneath with small bristles or tenters.
† 3. fig. esp. in phrases: a. To put, set, stretch, etc., on (the) tenter(s, = to set on tenter-hooks; to rack: see TENTER-HOOK 2, 2 b. Obs.
a. 1533. Ld. Berners, Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546), C c ij b. Ye haue strayned it on the tentours, and drawen it on the perche.
a. 1556. Cranmer, Wks. (Parker Soc.), I. 60. But the papists have set Christ’s words upon the tenters, and stretched them out so far, that they make his words to signify as pleaseth them, not as he meant.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus., II. (1882), 33. They inhance the rents, and set their fines on tenter.
1656. Artif. Handsom., 133. Nor ought the conscience in these to be set upon the rack and tainter.
1742. Richardson, Pamela, III. 341. I have pity’d him many a time, when I have seen him stretched on the Tenters to keep thee in Countenance.
b. To be on (the) tenter(s, i.e., in a position of strain, difficulty, or uneasiness; to be in a state of anxious suspense. Now rare or Obs., superseded by on tenter-hooks: see TENTER-HOOK 2 c.
1633. Ford, Broken H., I. iii. My very heart-strings Are on the tenters.
1726. Adv. Capt. R. Boyle (1768), 27. I was upon the Tenters to know the Reason of my Confinement.
1796. Scott, Lett. to Miss C. Rutherford, 5 June. Your curiosity will be upon the tenters to hear the wonderful events.
1806. Fessenden, Democr., I. 39. Stretch’d on the tenters of anxiety By blunder, crime, or impropriety.
† 4. A stretching implement: ? = TENT sb.3 Obs.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1658), 147. Put in the Opponax, and of both together make like taynters or splints, and thrust them into the wound. Ibid., 808. This applied to the bitten place in a linnen cloth, and tentures twice a day, did perfectly recover her health within a month.
1681. Grew, Musæum, IV. i. 360. A Box of Anatomick Instruments; sc. Saws, Steel and Ivory Knives,… a Tenter.
5. attrib. and Comb., as tenter-stretched adj.; tenter-balk (-bauk), -bar: see quots.; tenter-field, -place, = TENTER-GROUND; tenter-frame = sense 1; tenter-house, -machine: see sense 1 (note); tenter-timber, timber for making tenters. See also TENTER-GROUND, -HOOK, -YARD.
1876. Whitby Gloss., *Tenter-bauks, the beams to which the butcher’s meat-hooks are fastened.
1877. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Tenter-bar, a device for stretching cloth.
1844. G. Dodd, Textile Manuf., ii. 104. The cloth is stretched out and hung up to dry. This used to be done in the *tenter-fields.
1835. Ure, Philos. Manuf., 192. When the fulling is finished, the cloth is stretched once more on the *tenter-frame, and left in the open air till it is dry.
1861. C. C. Robinson, Leeds Gloss., s.v. Tenters, The tenter-frames are upright bars placed at a short distance from each other and connected by other horizontal ones, top and bottom, having an array of hooks at equal distances on which the cloth is fastened by the listing of both sides.
1457. in Arnolde, Chron. (1811), 72. All thoo in the said cite or subbarbis that ocupye … *teynter placys for fullers.
1641. Sir B. Rudyard, in Rushw., Hist. Coll., III. (1692), I. 167. Not to press such *Tenter-stretched Arguments.
1562. Richmond Wills (Surtees), 152. Stees, stanggs, peatts, old *tenture tymber, xs.
