tenter
Americannoun
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a framework on which cloth in the process of manufacture is stretched so it may set or dry evenly.
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Obsolete. a tenterhook.
verb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
noun
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a frame on which cloth is stretched during the manufacturing process in order that it may retain its shape while drying
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a person who stretches cloth on a tenter
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of tenter
1300–50; Middle English tente to stretch (< Latin tentus, variant of tēnsus tense 1 ) + -er 1; replacing Middle English teyntur, of unclear derivation
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Soon Jocelin himself is wrestling with the high cost of inspiration, strung taut between the tenter hooks of divine and earthly means.
From Time Magazine Archive
But his chief fear was, and it kept him on tenter hooks throughout the day, that his grand exploit would be nipped in the bud, altogether frustrated, by his being prematurely fetched home.
From A Hero of Romance by Marsh, Richard
His attitude betrays an overwhelming, gloomy anxiety which has him on tenter hooks.
From Anna Christie by O'Neill, Eugene
Hence span-new is fresh from the stretchers, or frames, alluding to cloth, a very old manufacture of the country; and spick and span is fresh from the spike, or tenter, and frames.
From Notes and Queries, Number 78, April 26, 1851 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc by Bell, George
Syne, while I still was on the tenter, I scunnered at the new prezentor; I thocht him gesterin' an' cauld - A sair declension frae the auld.
From Underwoods by Stevenson, Robert Louis
At Colter Bay, in the Grand Tetons of Wyoming, a luxurious campground financed by the Rockefellers has segregated areas for cabin campers, trailer campers, campers, or just plain tenters.
From Time Magazine Archive
Whitechapel takes its name from a white chapel-of-ease built to relieve Stepney, in which parish this district was till 1763. tenters: pegs for stretching cloth.
From The History of London by Besant, Walter, Sir
No thrall's hands in the hangings were, No thrall's hands made the tenters bare.
From Poems By The Way & Love Is Enough by Morris, William
True woman!—How you love to put one upon the tenters!
From Pamela, Volume II by Richardson, Samuel
Even the hot supper of steak and potatoes that Penny prepared failed to sufficiently warm the two tenters.
From Voice from the Cave by Wirt, Mildred A. (Mildred Augustine)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
