noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
anger/confidence/tension/hope etc drains away
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Sally felt her anger drain away.
defuse tension/anger etc
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The agreement was regarded as a means of defusing ethnic tensions.
ease the pain/stress/tension
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He’ll give you something to ease the pain.
ethnic tension (= a feeling of tension and lack of trust between members of different ethnic groups )
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It is feared that the growing ethnic tension could lead to civil war.
nervous tension (= a feeling of being very tense and nervous )
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It was the play’s opening night, and Gloria was in a state of nervous tension.
premenstrual tension
racial tension (= bad feelings between people of different races, which could develop into violence )
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His arrest is likely to heighten racial tensions.
relieve tension
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They all laughed and it helped to relieve the tension.
sense the tension
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I could sense the tension in the court as the jury returned.
surface tension
Tension...mounting
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Tension here is mounting , as we await the final result.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
constant
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A constant underlying tension therefore characterized the socio-political structure of the duchy of Aquitaine.
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Or did the belief in their inevitable demise subject them to a constant state of tension and anxiety?
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The Nazification process thrived on an air of constant tension .
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When Stephanopoulos looked back on the struggle, he remembered only its pleasures, not its constant tensions and sixteen-hour days.
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His time at Canterbury led to constant tensions with the Crown and periods of exile in Rome.
dramatic
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To demonstrate dramatic tension . 3.
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This should not defuse the dramatic tension .
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The key to this lies in dramatic tension .
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Playing the game is not in itself drama, though a great deal of dramatic tension arises when it is well played.
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We can create dramatic tension by building up expectations.
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This increases the urgency of the task, and raises dramatic tension .
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The teacher should plan carefully first to create dramatic tension , and then to use it productively.
ethnic
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Unequal educational gains have further increased social and economic inequalities between regions and classes and have contributed to ethnic and political tensions .
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The plagues of aggressive nationalism, racism, chauvinism, xenophobia, anti-semitism and ethnic tension are still widespread.
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Moldavia refused to hold the referendum on the grounds that it would worsen ethnic tensions in the republic.
high
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The high feeling and tension of the afternoon carried over into the night.
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In general terms, the greater the area of the sail, the higher the tension on the line.
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Tweed, enduring high tension , concealed his shock well.
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It is a generally known fact that here our bow is at a very high tension .
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The demonstration went ahead on March 28 amid high tension , and in the face of a huge police and troop presence.
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The federal army has been called in to act as a buffer in areas of high tension .
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Our choice was one which policemen and women from areas of high tension could not appreciate.
muscular
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Not only had he spotted excessive muscular tension throughout his body, but now he thought he knew how to correct it.
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A trained and skilled practitioner can tailor a session to treat insomnia by reducing muscular tension and promoting relaxation.
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We start to lose control of our minds in the same way that muscular tension is often out of our control.
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The trouble is that anything you do, nomatterwhat, will nearly always increase the muscular tension and make the situation worse.
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This always increases muscular tension which is the very opposite of what you are trying to achieve.
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But holding these positions creates muscular tension which, ultimately, replaces one habit with another.
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They make no attempt to explore the cause of those tears, concentrating instead on living without muscular tension .
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This will ease the muscular tension in the neck so that the chin drops towards the chest.
nervous
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Walking will help you to sleep and is an antidote to stress, nervous tension and depression.
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The faster machines move the faster man lives and the bigger the tribute in nervous tension he pays to the machine.
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In the period leading up to the actual fight, first-time fighters are suddenly stricken with nervous tension .
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Passion flower is employed around the world as a mild sedative that reduces nervous tension and anxiety.
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In her state of extreme nervous tension she had clutched those dollars so tightly that they'd almost disintegrated.
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Others seem to hear your heartbeat and remain in a constant state of nervous tension .
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Up in the stand some one giggled with nervous tension .
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I didn't sleep the night before the exam because of nervous tension , however, so I didn't do very well.
political
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With the urban population growing towards 320 million by the year 2000, social and political tensions are likely to increase.
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Clinton and Brown overcame early political tensions to forge their strong alliance.
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That would help to ensure that political and social tensions were guided through established channels and not forced on to the streets.
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The deadlock in electing a president heightened the political tension in the country.
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Unequal educational gains have further increased social and economic inequalities between regions and classes and have contributed to ethnic and political tensions .
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That generation knows only too well what political tension can mean.
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Urging restraint in the development of conventional forces, the statement said that otherwise these could exacerbate political tensions .
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This does not mean, however, that there were no political tensions .
racial
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Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd said that Britain could not risk a new rise in racial tension through immigration.
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Both were involved in high-profile incidents last semester that heightened racial tensions on campus.
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Longstanding racial tensions and complaints of persistent police harassment of young people underlay the incidents.
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Plenty of dope, the occasional weapon, racial tension .
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In addition, there was racial tension .
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The year was 1921, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, seethed with racial tension .
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Would the development of this sort of politics not heighten racial tension and conflict?
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Despite its fearless look at racial tensions , the film moves at a relaxed and humorous pace.
social
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With the urban population growing towards 320 million by the year 2000, social and political tensions are likely to increase.
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Holding monetary growth so low virtually dooms the United States to stagnant wages and social tensions .
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That would help to ensure that political and social tensions were guided through established channels and not forced on to the streets.
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Divorce is falling. Social tensions have lessened.
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These weighed as heavily in the social balance as the areas of social tension like Galicia.
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The high motivation, skills and adaptability of the new arrivals create social tensions that will be expressed in economic jealousy.
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What small political influence it possessed was confined to the immediate post-war years of social tension , inflation and unemployment.
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Mounting social tension was accompanied by the swift development of national consciousness among the Empire's ethnic minorities.
■ NOUN
muscle
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Any experienced masseur can tell how often, as they release muscle tension , tears are shed.
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A series of twitches builds up muscle tension into a sustained contraction.
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In this way heart rate, respiration rate, oxygen consumption, and muscle tension all reduce without conscious effort.
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They suggested that the newfound connection might explain the apparent link between muscle tension and severe headaches.
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Cervical reintegration relieved muscle tension , principally in the neck and back regions, but also locally around specific joints as indicated.
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This prolonged tension travels up to your shoulders, neck and face and increases muscle tension in these areas.
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Many people control their feelings through muscle tension and may re-experience these feelings spontaneously when the muscle spasm is broken up.
oxygen
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Our results show that poorly controlled surgical pain significantly reduces tissue-\#oxygen tension .
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More effective lung perfusion and expansion may have contributed to the more favourable arterial-alveolar oxygen tension ratios in the regulated group.
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The arterial-alveolar oxygen tension ratio is a useful prognostic indicator.
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Tarnow-Mordi etal found the mean arterial-alveolar oxygen tension ratio more closely associated with death than the worst arterial-alveolar oxygen tension ratio.
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This accords with our finding that median arterial-alveolar oxygen tension ratio predicts respiratory outcome better than the minimum ratio.
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Median and minimum arterial-alveolar oxygen tension ratios for ventilated infants on the first day were significantly lower in the random group.
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Wound tissue oxygen tension predicts the risk of wound infection in surgical patients.
surface
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This reduces surface tension allowing a better oxygen mixture therefore making the fuel easier to burn.
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The goal is to create a firm surface tension that allows the bread to rise without spreading out sideways.
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As they form under the forces of surface tension , they drag the silk into little bundles within them.
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The jersey, which was extra small, had shoulder straps that were hanging on by surface tension and willpower.
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Similarly an insect walking on the surface of a pond would have gravity counteracted by the surface tension of the water.
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The cup was so full, the coffee bulged with surface tension .
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From watching raindrops, bubbles and insects walking on ponds it is obvious that water and other liquids have a surface tension .
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Of course surface tension was an unknown phenomenon.
■ VERB
add
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The blockade has added to domestic tension , but also prevented women reaching the refuge.
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A series of gale warnings added an edge of tension to the creeping advance of fatigue.
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His new parent company may now be adding different tension as he lays plans to rationalise staffing structures.
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The timing of female voter decisions adds to the election-eve tension .
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To add to the tension Kay's ardent admirer, Ted Latimer, is staying in the hotel across the bay.
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There was no logical reason why they should add to the vague tension he'd been conscious of all day.
break
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She accompanied the daughter three times on visits to help break the tension .
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Everyone laughs, breaking the tension .
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She could think of no words to break the agonising tension .
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Most of the conductors go out, glad to break the tension with a sandwich.
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She is talking a little trash in an effort to break the tension in the room.
build
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Yet Daley remained outwardly serene, sometimes buoyant, while all around him the tension was building .
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Male speaker Inside you are going like the clappers because you are nervous and the tension is building up.
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This movie is mostly about the tension that builds between these guys, and the conflict between making money and staying friends.
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The town's magistrates were told that tension had built up for a year after a decision to dissolve the partnership.
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They were very sympathetic but after a while the tension began to build with ever-increasing rows.
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It was both an acknowledgement and an easing of the exquisite - almost intolerable tension that had been built up between them.
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It was extraordinary how, during such a routine exchange between the two men, tension could build up.
cause
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It caused a lot of tension , riots, and they barricaded the cells.
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But this never caused any tension in the show.
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Immigration from Comoros has caused tensions on Mayotte.
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The vast majority-about 90 percent-are caused by excessive tension in the head and neck muscles.
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All this has caused a lot of tension in our marriage.
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I wonder if this can tell us anything useful about meeting situations which may cause stressful tension ?
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This anxiety will cause tension which defeats the purpose of the exercise.
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Hearing loss often increases the circumstances which can cause stressful tension .
create
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The generation gap creates tension Law is now a young profession.
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The goal is to create a firm surface tension that allows the bread to rise without spreading out sideways.
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These changes have created conflicts and tensions such as between old and new technological trajectories and between national autonomy and international co-operation.
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Sometimes he chooses not to say anything, because it would create too much tension .
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This separation creates inevitable tensions between the team and the consultant, which are inimical to good multidisciplinary work.
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Many of the poems continue to create images of male-female tensions .
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In educational drama it is up to the teacher to create and build the tension .
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All this created an exquisite tension .
defuse
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This should not defuse the dramatic tension .
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Maybe the fraught confrontation earlier had defused some of the tension building up between them.
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Talks between representatives of the three communities appeared to defuse some of the tension .
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They know how helpful tears are to defuse tension and how constructive their aftermath can be.
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It, too, has been trying to defuse tensions .
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You can always bank on Ally McCoist to defuse the tension .
ease
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The horse slacked his pace, swung his neck down to ease the tension in it, and relaxed his tail.
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It was a generous gesture to try to ease the tension and relax a fellow professional.
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Finally, his decision to sign no doubt will ease the tension between his government and Washington.
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I try to ease the tension for players.
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This tends to ease the tension .
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This will ease the muscular tension in the neck so that the chin drops towards the chest.
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Which, I was beginning to think, might be just what I needed to ease a few tensions .
feel
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She could feel their tension and their eyes on her as she flicked the tuner across the dial desperately.
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Since his session with Peter Miller on Saturday, Jim had used the breathing exercise whenever he felt his tension level rising.
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Franca could feel the increase of tension in the room.
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The high feeling and tension of the afternoon carried over into the night.
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She felt a dart of tension .
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Just thinking about it made him feel a happy tension .
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She felt tension leaving her body.
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At this time, the civil rights movement was blooming, and the city felt racial tension .
heighten
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The deadlock in electing a president heightened the political tension in the country.
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Both were involved in high-profile incidents last semester that heightened racial tensions on campus.
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Another area of heightened tension is the controversy over the draft of the new constitution proposed by Mr Mugabe.
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The upshot of all this was to heighten the military tension on the divided peninsula.
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To some extent, the resistance to Lee reflects the heightened partisan tension in Washington this fall.
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But the case has raised eyebrows if not heightened tensions .
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The succession struggle is going to heighten tensions between the party's fundamentalist and gradualist factions.
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The organizers had strongly denied government accusations that the protest was an attempt to heighten political tensions .
increase
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During the spring there were renewed reports of increasing tension in some areas.
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Another source of increasing tension in the federal aid system concerned citizen participation in decisionmaking.
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It's like when you increase the tension on a spring: the pressure is straining to be released.
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Here as elsewhere in the developing world, traffic snarls have increased tensions and decreased productivity.
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The trouble is that anything you do, nomatterwhat, will nearly always increase the muscular tension and make the situation worse.
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This always increases muscular tension which is the very opposite of what you are trying to achieve.
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To increase this tension further and aggravate the goods famine even more is impossible.
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The failure of the talks held in Geneva at the end of September has clouded the horizon and increased tensions .
mount
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On Golding's island there was mounting tension because although the island was almost paradise it did have its problems.
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As the seconds before impact ticked away, Poole and Bowman waited with mounting tension .
reduce
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This reduces surface tension allowing a better oxygen mixture therefore making the fuel easier to burn.
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A trained and skilled practitioner can tailor a session to treat insomnia by reducing muscular tension and promoting relaxation.
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Chewing gives psychological satisfaction, and even in scientific experiments the chewing of gum has been found to help reduce tension .
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Effective discipline reduces tension and clarifies for children their role, responsibilities, and identity in the world.
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The talks were due to include discussions of measures to reduce tension between the two states and to promote bilateral exchanges.
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Authorities claim that a short nap can reduce tension and revitalize you.
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Our results show that poorly controlled surgical pain significantly reduces tissue-oxygen tension .
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Passion flower is employed around the world as a mild sedative that reduces nervous tension and anxiety.
release
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If you feel yourself tensing up, then spare a few moments to release that tension and see the difference it can make.
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She learned, through breathing and imagery, to release the tension .
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Any experienced masseur can tell how often, as they release muscle tension , tears are shed.
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Davis also told the psychiatrist and a Napa police detective that beating Arlington had helped him release tension .
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It releases tension and we need it.
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They needed some relief-some --- pressure valve-to release the tension .
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It becomes their responsibility to release the pressure and tension within you.
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To relax the jaw and release facial tension , pretend to blow out candles.
relieve
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If the way is clear, run towards the kite and relieve the tension on the single line.
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Being under tremendous stress, facing death, they relieved their tensions by cursing their situations.
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There are alternatives which relieve our immediate tension .
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We just did it to get off, to relieve some of the tension .
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For some, it's the chewing itself that relieves tension .
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The leader occasionally does some-thing totally outrageous to relieve the tension .
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So she had to express them, and relieve her tensions , with those stormy little displays of temper.
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Perhaps that was what she needed to relieve the tension .
resolve
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The above strategies are potentially available for resolving the tension between word order and communicative function.
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Such moves, however, have tended to restate rather than resolve the tension between control and autonomy.
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By that one gesture and a small shift in expression and tone of voice, he resolved the tension between us.
sense
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She could sense the rising tension in the room, almost as oppressive as the scent of all the flowers.
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The chil-dren sensed his tension and gave him a wide berth.
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She sensed the tensions we were suffering before we finally parted.
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I could sense the tension in the court as neighbours sought to give opinions to each other in noisy whispers.
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When he finally got there, when he walked through the town, he sensed a tension amongst those who saw him.
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Forester sensed a worm of tension , deep in his belly and fighting to get free.
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Blanche sensed the tension in his body, the clenched muscles.
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Romanov sensed the sort of tension he only felt in the field.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
you could cut the atmosphere/air/tension with a knife
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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Tension in the region has grown due to recent bombings.
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A crowd gathered and tension mounted till the riot broke out.
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Her voice trembled with tension .
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racial tension
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The tension was high in Mexico as the day of the decision approached.
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The room was filled with tension as students waited for the test to begin.
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The rope can take up to 300 pounds of tension .
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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Any experienced masseur can tell how often, as they release muscle tension , tears are shed.
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But tensions continue to boil over.
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In general terms, the greater the area of the sail, the higher the tension on the line.
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The atmosphere in her house is thick with tension .