tenter frame

Variant of tenter

noun

  1. a frame on which cloth is stretched after having been milled, so as to dry evenly without shrinking
    in full tenter frame
  2. Obsolete a tenterhook

Origin: ME tentoure, altered (infl. by tent, tent) < MFr tendëure < tendre, to stretch: see tend

transitive verb

to stretch (cloth) on a tenter or tenters

Origin: ME tenteren

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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