• enPR: tĕnt, IPA: /tɛnt/
  • (pin-pen) IPA: /tɪnt/

tent (plural tents)

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.

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.
   • 1824, James Hogg, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner:

     A splendid tent was erected on the brae north of the town, and round that the countless congregation assembled.

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

• French: tente, (military slang) guitoune
• German: Zelt
• Italian: tenda
• Portuguese: tenda, barraca (Brazil)
• Russian: пала́тка
• Spanish: tienda, toldo, carpa

tent (tents, present participle tenting; past and past participle tented)

1. (intransitive) To go camping.

   We’ll be tented 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.

• Portuguese: tenda, tenda

tent (tents, present participle tenting; past and past participle tented)

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

tent (plural tents)

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

tent (plural tents)

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.

tent (tents, present participle tenting; past and past participle tented)

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

   to tent a wound

   • c. 1599–1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act II, scene ii]:

     I'll tent him to the quick.

tent (plural tents)

1. (archaic) A kind of wine of a deep red color, chiefly from Galicia or Malaga in Spain; called also tent wine, and tinta.