Tentered

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Stretched and fixed on a tenter frame so that cloth dries evenly and keeps its proper width
2. Held taut on a frame of hooks or pins while cloth is dried and kept to an even size
3. Pulled out flat and secured on a rack so that woven fabric dries without shrinking or warping

Etymology: "Tentered" is the past tense and past participle of "tenter", and the verb's story starts with a tool rather than a tent. A tenter was a frame, usually of wood with rows of hooked pins, on which freshly woven cloth was stretched and dried so it would keep its width and not shrink or warp. The cloth was pinned out ("tentered") on these frames, and the phrase "on the tenter-hooks" came to describe the anxious state of being stretched tight, which is where the modern sense of nervous suspense comes from. The noun is traced via Old French to a Latin source, probably "tentorium", a word for a tent or a covering, which linked to the idea of a stretched cloth. The connection to a shelter is therefore a plausible rather than certain root, and the textile sense is the older, more concrete one.

Synonyms: stretch, extend

Antonyms: contract, shrink