Ten-o'clock noun (Botany) A plant, the star-of-Bethlehem. See under Star .

Ten-pounder noun (Zoology) A large oceanic fish ( Elops saurus ) found in the tropical parts of all the oceans. It is used chiefly for bait.

Tenebrose adjective Characterized by darkness or gloom; tenebrous.

Tenebrosity noun The quality or state of being tenebrous; tenebrousness. Burton.

Tenebrous adjective [ Latin tenebrosus , from tenebrae darkness: confer French ténébreux .] Dark; gloomy; dusky; tenebrious. -- Ten"e*brous*ness , noun

The most dark, tenebrous night.

J. Hall (1565).

The towering and tenebrous boughts of the cypress.

Longfellow.

Tenement noun [ Old French tenement a holding, a fief, French tènement , Late Latin tenementum , from Latin tenere to hold. See Tenant .]
1. (Feud. Law) That which is held of another by service; property which one holds of a lord or proprietor in consideration of some military or pecuniary service; fief; fee.

2. (Common Law) Any species of permanent property that may be held, so as to create a tenancy, as lands, houses, rents, commons, an office, an advowson, a franchise, a right of common, a peerage, and the like; -- called also free or frank tenements .

The thing held is a tenement , the possessor of it a "tenant," and the manner of possession is called "tenure."

Blackstone.

3. A dwelling house; a building for a habitation; also, an apartment, or suite of rooms, in a building, used by one family; often, a house erected to be rented.

4. Fig.: Dwelling; abode; habitation.

Who has informed us that a rational soul can inhabit no tenement , unless it has just such a sort of frontispiece?

Locke.

Tenement house , commonly, a dwelling house erected for the purpose of being rented, and divided into separate apartments or tenements for families. The term is often applied to apartment houses occupied by poor families.

Syn. -- House; dwelling; habitation. -- Tenement , House . There may be many houses under one roof, but they are completely separated from each other by party walls. A tenement may be detached by itself, or it may be part of a house divided off for the use of a family.

Tenemental adjective Of or pertaining to a tenement; capable of being held by tenants. Blackstone.

Tenementary adjective Capable of being leased; held by tenants. Spelman.

Tenent noun [ Latin tenent they hold, 3d pers. plural present of tenere .] A tenet. [ Obsolete] Bp. Sanderson.

Teneral adjective [ Latin tener , - eris , tender, delicate.] (Zoology) Of, pertaining to, or designating, a condition assumed by the imago of certain Neuroptera, after exclusion from the pupa. In this state the insect is soft, and has not fully attained its mature coloring.

Teneriffe noun A white wine resembling Madeira in taste, but more tart, produced in Teneriffe, one of the Canary Islands; -- called also Vidonia .

Tenerity noun [ Latin teneritas . See Tender , adjective ] Tenderness. [ Obsolete] Ainsworth.

Tenesmic adjective (Medicine) Of or pertaining to tenesmus; characterized by tenesmus.

Tenesmus noun [ New Latin , from Greek ..., from ... to stretch: confer Latin tenesmos .] (Medicine) An urgent and distressing sensation, as if a discharge from the intestines must take place, although none can be effected; -- always referred to the lower extremity of the rectum.

Vesical tenesmus , a similar sensation as to the evacuation of urine, referred to the region of the bladder.

Tenet noun [ Latin tenet he holds, from tenere to hold. See Tenable .] Any opinion, principle, dogma, belief, or doctrine, which a person holds or maintains as true; as, the tenets of Plato or of Cicero.

That al animals of the land are in their kind in the sea, . . . is a tenet very questionable.

Sir T. Browne.

The religious tenets of his family he had early renounced with contempt.

Macaulay.

Syn. -- Dogma; doctrine; opinion; principle; position. See Dogma .

Tenfold adjective & adverb In tens; consisting of ten in one; ten times repeated.

The grisly Terror . . . grew tenfold
More dreadful and deform.

Milton.

Tenia noun [ New Latin ] See Tænia .

Tenioid adjective See Tænoid .

Tennantite noun [ Named after Smithson Tennant , an English chemist.] (Min.) A blackish lead- gray mineral, closely related to tetrahedrite. It is essentially a sulphide of arsenic and copper.

Tenné noun [ Confer Tawny .] (Her.) A tincture, rarely employed, which is considered as an orange color or bright brown. It is represented by diagonal lines from sinister to dexter, crossed by vertical lines.

Tennis noun [ Middle English tennes , tenies , tenyse ; of uncertain origin, perhaps from French tenez hold or take it, from tenir to hold (see Tenable ).] A play in which a ball is driven to and fro, or kept in motion by striking it with a racket or with the open hand. Shak.

His easy bow, his good stories, his style of dancing and playing tennis , . . . were familiar to all London.

Macaulay.

Court tennis , the old game of tennis as played within walled courts of peculiar construction; -- distinguished from lawn tennis . -- Lawn tennis . See under Lawn , noun -- Tennis court , a place or court for playing the game of tennis. Shak.

Tennis transitive verb To drive backward and forward, as a ball in playing tennis. [ R.] Spenser.

Tenno noun [ Jap. tennō , from Chin. t'ien heaven + wang king.] Lit., King of Heaven; -- a title of the emperor of Japan as the head of the Shinto religion.

Tennu noun (Zoology) The tapir.

Tennysonian adjective Of or pertaining to Alfred (Lord) Tennyson, the English poet (1809-92); resembling, or having some of the characteristics of, his poetry, as simplicity, pictorial quality, sensuousness, etc.

Tenon noun [ French, from tenir to hold. See Tenable .] (Carp. & Join.) A projecting member left by cutting away the wood around it, and made to insert into a mortise, and in this way secure together the parts of a frame; especially, such a member when it passes entirely through the thickness of the piece in which the mortise is cut, and shows on the other side. Confer Tooth , Tusk .

Tenon saw , a saw with a thin blade, usually stiffened by a brass or steel back, for cutting tenons. [ Corruptly written tenant saw .] Gwilt.

Tenon transitive verb To cut or fit for insertion into a mortise, as the end of a piece of timber.

Tenonian adjective (Anat.) Discovered or described by M. Tenon , a French anatomist.

Tenonian capsule (Anat.) , a lymphatic space inclosed by a delicate membrane or fascia (the fascia of Tenon ) between the eyeball and the fat of the orbit; -- called also capsule of Tenon .

Tenonitis noun [ New Latin , Greek te`nwn tendon + -itis .] (Medicine) Inflammation of a tendon.

Tenor noun [ Latin , from tenere to hold; hence, properly, a holding on in a continued course: confer French teneur . See Tenable , and confer Tenor a kind of voice.]
1. A state of holding on in a continuous course; manner of continuity; constant mode; general tendency; course; career.

Along the cool sequestered vale of life
They kept the noiseless tenor of their away.

Gray.

2. That course of thought which holds on through a discourse; the general drift or course of thought; purport; intent; meaning; understanding.

When it [ the bond] is paid according to the tenor .

Shak.

Does not the whole tenor of the divine law positively require humility and meekness to all men?

Spart.

3. Stamp; character; nature.

This success would look like chance, if it were perpetual, and always of the same tenor .

Dryden.

4. (Law) An exact copy of a writing, set forth in the words and figures of it. It differs from purport , which is only the substance or general import of the instrument. Bouvier.

5. [ French ténor , Latin tenor , properly, a holding; -- so called because the tenor was the voice which took and held the principal part, the plain song, air, or tune, to which the other voices supplied a harmony above and below: confer Italian tenore .] (Mus.) (a) The higher of the two kinds of voices usually belonging to adult males; hence, the part in the harmony adapted to this voice; the second of the four parts in the scale of sounds, reckoning from the base, and originally the air, to which the other parts were auxillary. (b) A person who sings the tenor, or the instrument that play it.

Old Tenor , New Tenor , Middle Tenor , different descriptions of paper money, issued at different periods, by the American colonial governments in the last century.

Tenorrhaphy noun [ Greek te`nwn tendon + -rhaphy .] (Surg.) Suture of a tendon.

Tenositis noun [ New Latin , from Greek te`nwn tendon + -itis .] (Medicine) Inflammation of a tendon.

Tenosynovitis noun [ New Latin , from Greek te`nwn a tendon + English synovitis .] (Medicine) Inflammation of the synovial sheath enveloping a tendon.

Tenotome noun (Surg.) A slender knife for use in the operation of tenotomy.

Tenotomy noun [ Greek te`nwn a tendon + te`mnein to cut.] (Surg.) The division of a tendon, or the act of dividing a tendon.

Tenpenny adjective Valued or sold at ten pence; as, a tenpenny cake. See 2d Penny , noun

Tenpenny adjective Denoting a size of nails. See 1st Penny .

Tenpins noun A game resembling ninepins, but played with ten pins. See Ninepins . [ U. S.]

Tenrec noun [ From the native name: confer French tanrac , tanrec , tandrec .] (Zoology) A small insectivore ( Centetes ecaudatus ), native of Madagascar, but introduced also into the islands of Bourbon and Mauritius; -- called also tanrec . The name is applied to other allied genera. See Tendrac .

Tense noun [ Old French tens , properly, time, French temps time, tense. See Temporal of time, and confer Thing .] (Gram.) One of the forms which a verb takes by inflection or by adding auxiliary words, so as to indicate the time of the action or event signified; the modification which verbs undergo for the indication of time.

» The primary simple tenses are three: those which express time past , present , and future ; but these admit of modifications, which differ in different languages.

Tense adjective [ Latin tensus , past participle of tendere to stretch. See Tend to move, and confer Toise .] Stretched tightly; strained to stiffness; rigid; not lax; as, a tense fiber.

The temples were sunk, her forehead was tense , and a fatal paleness was upon her.

Goldsmith.

-- Tense"ly , adverb -- Tense"ness , noun

Tensibility noun The quality or state of being tensible; tensility.

Tensible adjective [ See Tense , adjective ] Capable of being extended or drawn out; ductile; tensible.

Gold . . . is likewise the most flexible and tensible .

Bacon.

Tensile adjective [ See Tense , adjective ]
1. Of or pertaining to extension; as, tensile strength.

2. Capable of extension; ductile; tensible. Bacon.

Tensiled adjective Made tensile. [ R.]

Tensility noun The quality or state of being tensile, or capable of extension; tensibility; as, the tensility of the muscles. Dr. H. Mere.

Tension noun [ Latin tensio , from tendere , tensum , to stretch: confer French tension . See Tense , adjective ]
1. The act of stretching or straining; the state of being stretched or strained to stiffness; the state of being bent strained; as, the tension of the muscles, tension of the larynx.

2. Fig.: Extreme strain of mind or excitement of feeling; intense effort.

3. The degree of stretching to which a wire, cord, piece of timber, or the like, is strained by drawing it in the direction of its length; strain. Gwilt.

4. (Mech.) The force by which a part is pulled when forming part of any system in equilibrium or in motion; as, the tension of a srting supporting a weight equals that weight.

5. A device for checking the delivery of the thread in a sewing machine, so as to give the stitch the required degree of tightness.

6. (Physics) Expansive force; the force with which the particles of a body, as a gas, tend to recede from each other and occupy a larger space; elastic force; elasticity; as, the tension of vapor; the tension of air.

7. (Electricity) The quality in consequence of which an electric charge tends to discharge itself, as into the air by a spark, or to pass from a body of greater to one of less electrical potential. It varies as the quantity of electricity upon a given area.

Tension brace , or Tension member (Engineering) , a brace or member designed to resist tension, or subjected to tension, in a structure. -- Tension rod (Engineering) , an iron rod used as a tension member to strengthen timber or metal framework, roofs, or the like.

Tensioned adjective Extended or drawn out; subjected to tension. "A highly tensioned string." Tyndall.