Dictionary entry

Tent (5)

Webster's Dictionary 1913

Tent, n. [F. tente. See Tent to probe.] (Surg.) (a) 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. (b) A probe for searching a wound.

The tent that searches

To the bottom of the worst. Shak.