Along the cool sequestered vale of life They kept
the noiseless tenor of their away. --Gray.
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.
--Shak.
Does not the whole tenor of the divine law
positively require humility and meekness to all men?
--Spart.
This success would look like chance, if it were
perpetual, and always of the same tenor. --Dryden.
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. [F. t['e]nor, L. tenor, properly, a holding; -- so called
because the tenor was the voice which took and held the
principal part, the plain song, air, or tune, to which the
other voices supplied a harmony above and below: cf. It.
tenore.] (Mus.)
(a) 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
auxillary.
(b) A person who sings the tenor, or the instrument that
play it.
{Old Tenor}, {New Tenor}, {Middle Tenor}, different
descriptions of paper money, issued at different periods,
by the American colonial governments in the last century.