Definition of "tent"

tent¹

/tɛnt/

noun
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.
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.
  Quotations
  A splendid tent was erected on the brae north of the town, and round that the countless congregation assembled.
  1824, James Hogg, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner
4. A trouser tent; a piece of fabric, etc. protruding outward like a tent.
  Quotations
  […] feeling his erection making a tent in his pants.
  2013, Nathan Lapointe, A Strange New World
verb
third-person singular simple present tents, present participle tenting, simple past and past participle tented
1. (intransitive) To go camping.
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.
4. Synonym of fumigate

tent²

/tɛnt/

verb
third-person singular simple present tents, present participle tenting, simple past and past participle tented
1. (archaic, UK, Scotland, dialect) To attend to; to heed
  Quotations
  He let hur have wemen at wylle,To tent hur, and that was skylle,And brought hur to bede
  14th century, anonymous, The Romance of Syr Tryamoure
2. (archaic, UK, Scotland, dialect) to guard; to hinder.
noun
plural tents
1. (archaic, UK, Scotland, dialect) Attention; regard, care.
  Quotations
  Lo ! lo ! my frend , take tent to this womman
  a. 1451, John Lydgate, The Prohemy of a Marriage betwixt and Olde Man and a Yonge Wife, and the Counsail &c.
2. (archaic) Intention; design.
  Quotations
  A-pon þe feild his fader wentAnd soght abel wit al his tent
  a. 1300, anonymous author, Cursor Mundi

tent³

/tɛnt/

noun
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.
verb
third-person singular simple present tents, present participle tenting, simple past and past participle tented
1. (medicine, sometimes figurative) To probe or to search with a tent; to keep open with a tent.
  Quotations
  I'll tent him to the quick.
  c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene ii]

tent⁴

/tɛnt/

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