n. & v.
n. 1 a portable shelter or dwelling of canvas, cloth, etc., supported by a pole or poles and stretched by cords attached to pegs driven into the ground. 2 Med. a tentlike enclosure for control of the air supply to a patient.
v. 1 tr. cover with or as with a tent. 2 intr. a encamp in a tent. b dwell temporarily. tent-bed a bed with a tentlike canopy, or for a patient in a tent. tent coat (or dress) a coat (or dress) cut very full. tent-fly (pl. -flies) 1 a flap at the entrance to a tent. 2 a piece of canvas stretched over the ridge-pole of a tent leaving an open space but keeping off sun and rain. tent-peg any of the pegs to which the cords of a tent are attached. tent-pegging a sport in which a rider tries at full gallop to carry off on the point of a lance a tent-peg fixed in the ground. tent-stitch 1 a series of parallel diagonal stitches. 2 such a stitch.
[ ME f. OF tente ult. f. L tendere stretch: tent-stitch may be f. another word ]