Emily Dickinson Lexicon

TEND'MENT, n.

Attendance; care. [Obs.] Hall.

TEN'DON, n. [L. tendo; Gr. τενων; from τεινω, L. teneo, tendo.]

In anatomy, a hard, insensible cord or bundle of fibers, by which a muscle is attached to a bone.

TEN'DRAC, n. [or TEN'REC, or TAN'REC.]

The popular name of three insectivorous mammals, of the genus Centenes. They are small quadrupeds, found in Madagascar and the Isle of France.

TEN'DRIL, a.

Clasping; climbing; as a tendril. Dyer.

TEN'DRIL, n. [Fr. tendron, from tenir, to hold.]

A filiform spiral shoot of a plant that winds round another body for the purpose of support. Tendrils or claspers are given to plants that have weak stalks. Ray. They are also given to creeping vines which require support on the earth. A tendril, in most cases, is a peculiar modification of a petiole; though sometimes it is a modification of some part of the inflorescence, as in the vine. Lindley.

TEND'SOME, a.

Requiring much attendance; as, a tendsome child.

TEN'E-BROUS, or TE-NE'BRI-OUS, a. [L. tenebrosus, from tenebræ, darkness.]

Dark; gloomy. Young.

TE-NE'BROUS-NESS, or TEN-E-BROS'I-TY, n.

Darkness; gloom.

TEN'E-MENT, n. [Fr.; Low L. tenementum, from teneo, to hold.]

1. In common acceptation, a house; a building for a habitation; or an apartment in a building, used by one family.
2. A house or lands depending on a manor; or a fee farm depending on a superior. Cyc.
3. In law, any species of permanent property that may be held, as land, houses, rents, commons, an office, an advowson, a franchise, a right of common, a peerage, &c. These are called free or frank tenements. The thing held is a tenement, and the possessor of it a tenant, and the manner of possession is called tenure. Blackstone.

TEN-E-MENT'AL, a.

Pertaining to tenanted lands; that is or may be held by tenants. Tenemental lands they distributed among their tenants. Blackstone.

TEN-E-MENT'A-RY, a.

That is or may be leased; held by tenants. Spelman.

TE-NER'I-TY, n.

Tenderness. [Not in use.]

TE-NES'MUS, n. [L.; literally, a straining or stretching.]

An urgent, distressing, and almost painful sensation, as if a discharge from the intestines must take place immediately; always referred to the lower extremity of the rectum.

TEN'ET, n. [L. tenet, he holds.]

Any opinion, principle, dogma, or doctrine which a person believes or maintains as true; as, the tenets of Plato or of Cicero. The tenets of Christians are adopted from the Scriptures; but different interpretations give rise to a great diversity of tenets.

TEN'FOLD, a. [ten and fold.]

Ten times more. Fire kindled into tenfold rage. Milton.

TEN'I-OID, a.

A term applied to a family of parenchymatous entozoa, comprising what are commonly called tapeworms.

TEN'NANT-ITE, n. [from Tennant.]

A subspecies of gray copper; a mineral of a lead color, or iron black, massive or crystalized, found in Cornwall, England. Ure.

TEN'NIS, n. [If this word is from L. teneo, Fr. tenir, it must be from the sense of holding on, continuing to keep in motion.]

A play in which a ball is driven continually or kept in motion by rackets.

TEN'NIS, v.t.

To drive a ball. Spenser.

TEN'NIS-ED, pp.

Driven as a ball.

TEN'NIS-ING, ppr.

Driving as a ball.

TEN'ON, n. [Fr. from tenir, L. teneo, to hold.]

In building and cabinet work, the end of a piece of timber, which is fitted to a mortise for insertion, or inserted, for fastening two pieces of timber together. The form of a tenon is various, as square, dovetailed, &c.

TEN'OR, n. [L. tenor, from teneo, to hold; that is, a holding on in a continued course; Fr. teneur; It. tenore; Sp. tenor.]

1. Continued run or currency; whole course or strain. We understand a speaker's intention or views from the tenor of his conversation; that is, from the general course of his ideas, or general purport of his speech. Does not the whole tenor of the divine law positively require humility and meekness to all men? Sprat.
2. Stamp; character. The conversation was of the same tenor as that of the preceding day. This success would look like chance, if it were not perpetual and always of the same tenor. Dryden.
3. Sense contained; purport; substance; general course or drift; as, close attention to the tenor of the discourse. Warrants are to be executed according to their form and tenor. Locke. Bid me tear the bond, / When it is paid according to the tenor. Shak.
4. [Fr. tenor.] In music, the natural pitch of a man's voice in singing; hence, the part of a tune adapted to a man's voice, the second of the four parts, reckoning from the base; and originally the air, to which the other parts were auxiliary.
5. The persons who sing the tenor, or the instrument that plays it.

TENSE, a. [tens; L. tensus, from tendo, to stretch.]

Stretched; strained to stiffness; rigid; not lax; as, a tense fiber. For the free page of the sound into the car, it is requisite that the tympanum be tense. Holder.

TENSE, n. [tens; corrupted from Fr. temps, L. tempus.]

In grammar, time, or a particular form of a verb, or a combination of words, used to express the time of action, or of that which is affirmed; or tense is an inflection of verbs, by which they are made to signify distinguish the time of actions or events. The primary simple tenses are three; those which express time past, present, and future; but these admit of modifications, which differ in different languages. The English language is rich in tenses, beyond any other language in Europe.