Tenor
Tenor , noun
[Latin, from tenere to hold; hence, properly, a holding on in a continued course: compare French teneur. See Tenable, and compare 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.
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.
Does not the whole tenor of the divine law positively require humility and meekness to all men?
3.
Stamp; character; nature.
This success would look like chance, if it were perpetual, and always of the same tenor.
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.
(a) (Music) 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 Auxiliary.
(b)
(Music) A person who sings the tenor, or the instrument that play it.
Collocations (1)
Old Tenor or New Tenor or Middle Tenor , different descriptions of paper money, issued at different periods, by the American colonial governments in the last century.