tenant

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   someone who pays rent to use land or a building or a car that is owned by someone else

   the landlord can evict a tenant who doesn't pay the rent

2. 2
   noun

   One who holds a lease (a tenancy).

   Long even before the last tenant had occupied it, the room had been regarded with fear and aversion, and the end of that last tenant had in no way lightened the gloom that hung about the place.

3. 3
   noun

   One who has possession of any place.

   c. 1782-1783, William Cowper, Joy in Martyrdom sweet tenants of this grove

4. 4
   noun

   Any of a number of customers serviced through the same instance of an application.

   multi-tenant hosting

5. 5
   verb

   To inhabit.

   His thin legs tenanted a pair of gambadoes fastened at the side with rusty clasps.

6. 6
   noun

   any occupant who dwells in a place

7. 7
   noun

   a holder of buildings or lands by any kind of title (as ownership or lease)

8. 8
   verb

   occupy as a tenant

Etymology

From Middle English tenaunt, from Anglo-Norman tenaunt and Old French tenant, present participle of tenir (“to hold”), from Latin tenēre (“hold, keep”).