Emily Dickinson Lexicon

TENT, n.¹ [W. tent, from ten, tyn, stretched; Fr. tente; Sp. tienda; L. 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. Cyc.