Tent \Tent\, n. [OE. tente, F. tente, LL. tenta, fr. L. tendere, tentum, to stretch. See Tend to move, and cf. Tent a roll of lint.]

1. A pavilion or portable lodge consisting of skins, canvas, or some strong cloth, stretched and sustained by poles, -- used for sheltering persons from the weather, especially soldiers in camp.

Within his tent, large as is a barn. --Chaucer.

2. (Her.) The representation of a tent used as a bearing.

Tent bed, a high-post bedstead curtained with a tentlike canopy.

Tent caterpillar (Zo["o]l.), any one of several species of gregarious caterpillars which construct on trees large silken webs into which they retreat when at rest. Some of the species are very destructive to fruit trees. The most common American species is the larva of a bombycid moth (Clisiocampa Americana). Called also lackery caterpillar, and webworm.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)