Word.ws English Dictionary

tentiginous

/ˈtɛntɪd͡ʒɪnəs/

tentiginous adjective: stiff; stretched; strained.

Adjective

tentiginous (comparative more tentiginous, superlative most tentiginous)

  1. (obsolete) stiff; stretched; strained
    • I think, it is agreed among physicians, that nothing affects the head so much, as a tentiginous humour, repelled and elated to the upper region, found by daily practice to run frequently up into madness.c. 1710, Jonathan Swift, A Discourse concerning the Mechanical Operation of the Spirit
    • a tentiginous State of the Fibres, stretched beyond their Power1727, Sir Richard Blackmore, Dissertations on a Dropsy, a Tympany, the Jaundice […] , page 97
  2. (obsolete) lustful, lascivious
    • Were you tentiginous? Ha? And again. Would you be acting of the incubus? Did her silks' rustling move you?1616, Ben Jonson, The Devil Is an Ass
    • To wax tentiginous o'er a pretty woman1907, Edwin Sauter, Satires

Forms of tentiginous

comparativemore tentiginous
superlativemost tentiginous

Origin of tentiginous

From Latin tentigo, tentiginis (“a tension, lecherousness”), from tendere, tentum (“to stretch”).

Questions about tentiginous

What does tentiginous mean?
Tentiginous means stiff; stretched; strained.
What part of speech is tentiginous?
Tentiginous is an adjective.
How do you pronounce tentiginous?
Tentiginous is pronounced /ˈtɛntɪd͡ʒɪnəs/.

Words near tentiginous in the dictionary

  1. tenthredinid
  2. tenthredinids
  3. tenths
  4. tenticular
  5. tentiform
  6. tentiginous
  7. tentigo
  8. tentilla
  9. tentillar
  10. tentillum
  11. tenting

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tentiginous (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “tentiginous.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tentiginous. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.