/ tens; NAmE / adjective , noun , verb
■ adjective
1.
( of a person ) nervous or worried, and unable to relax :
He's a very tense person.
She sounded tense and angry.
2.
( of a situation, an event, a period of time, etc. ) in which people have strong feelings such as worry, anger, etc. that often cannot be expressed openly :
I spent a tense few weeks waiting for the results of the tests.
The atmosphere in the meeting was getting more and more tense.
3.
( of a muscle or other part of the body ) tight rather than relaxed :
A massage will relax those tense muscles.
4.
( of wire, etc. ) stretched tightly
SYN taut
5.
( phonetics ) ( of a speech sound ) produced with the muscles of the speech organs stretched tight
OPP lax
► tense·ly adverb
► tense·ness noun [ U ]
■ noun
( grammar ) any of the forms of a verb that may be used to show the time of the action or state expressed by the verb :
the past / present / future tense
■ verb
~ (sth) (up) if you tense your muscles, or you or your muscles tense , they become tight and stiff, especially because you are not relaxed :
[ v ]
His muscles tensed as he got ready to run.
She tensed, hearing the strange noise again.
[ vn ]
She tensed her muscles in anticipation of the blow.
He tensed himself, listening to see if anyone had followed him.
•
IDIOMS
- be / get tensed up
••
WORD ORIGIN
adjective and verb late 17th cent.: from Latin tensus stretched, from the verb tendere .
noun Middle English (in the general sense time ): from Old French tens , from Latin tempus time.