TENT, noun [Latin tentorium, from tendo, to stretch.]

1. A pavilion or portable lodge consisting of canvas or other coarse cloth, stretched and sustained by poles; used for sheltering persons from the weather, particularly soldiers in camp. The wandering Arabs and Tartars lodge in tents. The Israelites lodged in tents forty years, while they were in the desert.

2. In surgery, a roll of lint or linen, used to dilate an opening in the flesh, or to prevent the healing of an opening from which matter or other fluid is discharged.

TENT, noun [Latin tinctus.] A kind of wine of a deep red color, chiefly from Galicia or Malaga in Spain.

TENT, verb intransitive To lodge as in a tent; to tabernacle.

TENT, verb transitive To probe; to search as with a tent; as, to tent a wound.

I'll tent him to the quick.

1. To keep open with a tent