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tenter

 - 3 dictionary results

ten⋅ter

  [ten-ter]
Use tenter in a Sentence
–noun
1. a framework on which cloth in the process of manufacture is stretched so it may set or dry evenly.
2. Obsolete. a tenterhook.
–verb (used with object)
3. to stretch (cloth) on a tenter or tenters.
–verb (used without object)
4. to be capable of being tentered.
Origin:
1300–50; ME tente to stretch (< L tentus, var. of tēnsus tense 1 ) + -er 1 ; r. ME teyntur, of unclear derivation
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To tenter
ten·ter   (těn'tər)   
n.  

  1. A framework on which milled cloth is stretched for drying without shrinkage.

  2. Archaic A tenterhook.

tr.v.   ten·tered, ten·ter·ing, ten·ters
To stretch (cloth) on a tenter.

[Middle English teyntur, tentour, probably ultimately from Latin tentōrium, shelter made of stretched skins, from tendere, to stretch; see tent1.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

tenter 
c.1300, "wooden framework for stretching cloth," via O.Fr. (the evolution of the ending is obscure), probably ult. from L. tentorium "tent made of stretched skins," from tentus "stretched," variant pp. of tendere "to stretch" (see tenet). The compound tenterhook (1480) is "one of the hooks that holds cloth on a tenter." The figurative phrase on tenterhooks "in painful suspense" is from 1748; earlier to be on tenters (1533).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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