Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1974 (SND Vol. IX).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

TENT, n.² Sc. usage of Eng. tent, a portable shelter: a moveable wooden pulpit, with steps and a canopy, erected in the open air, esp. at the half-yearly communion services when the congregation is too large for the church to contain (Sc. 1825 Jam.). Now hist. Also transf. of the preacher. Comb. tent-preaching, open-air preaching.Slg. 1705 R. M. Fergusson Logie (1905) I. 324:
To Robt. Hendersone, Smith, for setting of the tent and furnishing naills thereto.Wgt. 1716 Session Rec. Whithorn MS. (25 Oct.):
Makeing up the tent tables and nails at the Communion.Per. 1719 J. A. R. MacDonald Hist. Blairgowrie (1899) 105:
The collection at the tent, upon the Sabbath day.Sc. 1730 T. Boston Memoirs (1852) 150:
I stepped into the tent, and preached a while to them extempore.Ayr. 1739 A. Guthrie Ardrossan (1882) 75:
The timber of a tent to serve for preaching in the fields, and a basin to hold water for baptisms.Ayr. 1785 Burns Holy Fair xiv.:
But hark! the tent has chang'd its voice.Per. 1795 Stat. Acc.¹ XV. 537:
At the celebration of the great Christian festival, the Sacrament of the Supper, there is no field or tent preaching, as in some other places, so derogatory from the solemnity of this institution.s.Sc. 1839 Wilson's Tales of the Borders V. 33:
At the next market or the next tent-preaching.Sc. 1857 H. Miller Scenes and Leg. 419:
There were excellent sermons to be heard from the tent.Per. 1879 P. R. Drummond Bygone Days 165:
The tent was placed at the bottom of the hill which rises behind the village, while the congregation sat away up on the rising amphitheatre.