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Tent vs Shelter - What's the difference?

tent | shelter |

In intransitive terms the difference between tent and shelter

is that tent is to form into a tent-like shape while shelter is to take cover.

tent

English

(wikipedia tent)

Etymology 1

(etyl) .

Noun

(en noun)
  • 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.
  • (archaic) The representation of a tent used as a bearing.
  • Derived terms
    * bender tent * fold one's tent * tent bed * tent caterpillar

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To go camping.
  • We’ll be tented at the campground this weekend.
  • (cooking) To prop up aluminum foil in an inverted "V" (reminiscent of a pop-up tent) over food to reduce splatter, before putting it in the oven.
  • To form into a tent-like shape.
  • The sheet tented over his midsection.

    See also

    * camp * lean-to * tarp

    Etymology 2

    (etyl) .

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (archaic, UK, Scotland, dialect) To attend to; to heed; hence, to guard; to hinder.
  • (Halliwell)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (archaic, UK, Scotland, dialect) Attention; regard, care.
  • (Lydgate)
  • (archaic) Intention; design.
  • (Halliwell)

    Etymology 3

    (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (medicine) A roll of lint or linen, or a conical or cylindrical piece of sponge or other absorbent, used chiefly to dilate a natural canal, to keep open the orifice of a wound, or to absorb discharges.
  • (medicine) A probe for searching a wound.
  • Verb

    (en verb)
  • (medicine, sometimes, figurative) To probe or to search with a tent; to keep open with a tent.
  • to tent a wound
  • * Shakespeare
  • I'll tent him to the quick.

    Etymology 4

    (etyl) . More at tinge, tint, tinto.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (archaic) A kind of wine of a deep red color, chiefly from Galicia or Malaga in Spain; called also tent wine, and tinta.
  • (Webster 1913)

    Anagrams

    * ----

    shelter

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A refuge, haven or other cover or protection from something.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1928, author=Lawrence R. Bourne
  • , title=Well Tackled! , chapter=7 citation , passage=The detective kept them in view. He made his way casually along the inside of the shelter until he reached an open scuttle close to where the two men were standing talking. Eavesdropping was not a thing Larard would have practised from choice, but there were times when, in the public interest, he had to do it, and this was one of them.}}
  • An institution that provides temporary housing for homeless people, battered women etc.
  • Derived terms

    * bus shelter

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To provide cover from damage or harassment; to shield; to protect.
  • * Dryden
  • Those ruins sheltered once his sacred head.
  • * Southey
  • You have no convents in which such persons may be received and sheltered .
  • To take cover.
  • During the rainstorm, we sheltered under a tree.