Tent , n. [F. tente. See Tent to probe.] (Surg.) (a) 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. (b) A probe for searching a wound.

The tent that searches To the bottom of the worst. Shak.

Tent (?), n. [Sp. tinto, properly, deep-colored, fr. L. tinctus, p. p. of tingere to dye. See Tinge, and cf. Tint, Tinto.] A kind of wine of a deep red color, chiefly from Galicia or Malaga in Spain; -- called also tent wine, and tinta.

Tent , v. i. [imp. & p. p.Tented; p. pr. & vb. n. Tenting.] To lodge as a tent; to tabernacle. Shak.

"We re tenting to-night on the old camp ground." W. Kittredge.

Tent , n. [Cf. Attent, n.]

1. Attention; regard, care. [Obs. or Prov. Eng. & Scot.] Lydgate.

2. Intention; design. [Prov. Eng.] Halliwell.

Tent , v. t. To attend to; to heed; hence, to guard; to hinder. [Prov. Eng. & Scot.] Halliwell.

Tent , v. t. [OF. tenter. See Tempt.] To probe or to search with a tent; to keep open with a tent; as, to tent a wound. Used also figuratively.

"Ill tent him to the quick." Shak.

Tent (?), n. [OE. tente, F. tente, LL. tenta, fr. L. tendere, tentum, to stretch. See Tend to move, and cf. Tent a roll of lint.]

1. A pavilion or portable lodge consisting of skins, canvas, or some strong cloth, stretched and sustained by poles, -- used for sheltering persons from the weather, especially soldiers in camp.

Within his tent, large as is a barn. Chaucer.

2. (Her.) The representation of a tent used as a bearing.

Tent bed, a high-post bedstead curtained with a tentlike canopy. -- Tent caterpillar(Zoöl.), any one of several species of gregarious caterpillars which construct on trees large silken webs into which they retreat when at rest. Some of the species are very destructive to fruit trees. The most common American species is the larva of a bombycid moth (Clisiocampa Americana). Called also lackery caterpillar, and webworm.

-- Webster's unabridged 1913