[f. TENTER sb.1]
1. trans. To stretch (cloth) on a tenter or tenters.
1437. Coventry Leet Bk., 187. Yeff so be that hit wol-not bere the seyde lengeth than that the walker Teynter hym out to the lengethe off xv yerdes.
1473. in Arnolde, Chron. (1811), 78. The vntrouth falshed and desept … now daily vsed in the fullyng teynteryng or settyng and sheryng of wullen cloth.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus., II. (1882), 24. After they haue bought their cloth, they cause it to be tentered, racked, and so drawne out, as it shall be both broader and longer than it was.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 12. As when … Leather or Cloth tentured spring back.
1673. O. Heywood, Diaries, etc. (1882), I. 354. Having some land … where his cloth is tentered.
1789. Brand, Hist. Newcastle, II. 320. The ordinary of this society, called anciently walkers,… enacted that no brother should … tentor cloth on a Sunday.
1876. Cudworth, Bradford, vii. 466. Returning home…, the cloth was ‘tentered’—that is, if weather permitted.
† b. transf. To hang or stretch as on a tenter or tenters. Obs.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 244. If the heart needed any tension, it might better haue beene tentered, and with shorter stringes to the spine of the back.
1648. Bp. Hall, Easter at Higham, Rem. Wks. (1660), 194. Do the cruel tormentors tenter out his pretious limmes?
a. 1677. Barrow, Expos. Creed, Wks. 1716, I. 430. We may easily imagine what acerbity of pain must be endured in his limbs being stretched forth, racked and tentured.
† 2. fig. To set on the tenter, or on tenter-hooks: see TENTER sb.1 3, TENTER-HOOK 2 b. Also, to injure or pain as by stretching; to rack, torture (the feelings, etc.). Obs.
1612. R. Fenton, Usury, 38. Verily if vsurie were not, men would tenter their wits, either in trading themselues or imploying others.
1622. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, II. iii. He does stretch, Tenter his credit so.
1652. J. Wright, trans. Camus’ Nat. Paradox, III. 49. It might be done without tentering his Conscience.
a. 1734. North, Exam., II. iv. § 32 (1740), 247. It is plain … that Pepys, being once tentered, should have come off secundum artem.
† 3. intr. Of cloth: To admit of being stretched on the tenter; to bear tentering. Obs. rare–1.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 841. Parchment or leather will stretch, paper will not; woollen cloth will tenter, linen scarcely.
