Tenters

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. A wooden framework with hooks or pins on which freshly woven cloth is stretched to dry and keep its shape ; to fix cloth onto such a frame so it dries evenly and without shrinking
2. A rack fitted with hooks that holds damp fabric taut while it dries ; to pull and secure a length of cloth on such a rack so it stays flat
3. An adjustable frame used in textile finishing to hold material under tension during drying ; to stretch and pin fabric onto that frame

Etymology: The most striking thing about "tenters" is that its sense has almost nothing to do with tents. A tenter was a wooden frame on which freshly woven cloth was stretched and pinned, with hooks or nails along its edges, so that it dried flat and kept its shape. Cloth was often dampened and pulled taut on these frames in open fields, and the expression "on tenterhooks", meaning in a state of anxious suspense, comes from the hooks that held the fabric under strain. The word is probably from Old French, and possibly from Latin "tentorium", a tent or covering. The link to tent is plausible, though the source does not settle it, so the connection remains a suggestion rather than a certainty. Medieval English drapers and fullers used tenters for their finishing work, and the plural form "tenters" is the usual way the frames were referred to.