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1. A grammatical category of verbs used to express distinctions of time

1. Become stretched, tense or taut
   "the bodybuilder's neck muscles tensed";
   - strain
    
2. Increase the tension on
   "alternately relax and tense your calf muscle"; "tense the rope manually before tensing the spring"
    
3. Become tense, nervous, or uneasy
   "He tensed up when he saw his opponent enter the room";
   - tense up
    
4. Cause to be tense and uneasy, nervous or anxious
   "he got a phone call from his lawyer that tensed him up";
   - strain, tense up

1. In or of a state of physical or nervous tension
    
2. (phonetics) pronounced with relatively tense tongue muscles (e.g., the vowel sound in 'beat')
    
3. Taut or rigid; stretched tight
   "tense piano strings"

Sounds like: tenors, te, tense

Derived forms: tensing, tensest, tenses, tenser, tensed

See also: agitated, antsy [N. Amer], aroused, cliff-hanging, constricted, edgy, electric, fidgety, fretful, highly strung, high-strung, isotonic, itchy, jittery, jumpy, nail-biting, nervous, nervy, overstrung, pumped, pumped up, pumped-up, restive, squirrelly [N. Amer], strained, suspenseful, suspensive, taut, tight, twitchy, uneasy, unrelaxed, uptight, wired, wound up

Type of: affect, alter, change, change state, grammatical category, modify, syntactic category, tighten, turn

Antonym: lax, relax, relaxed

Encyclopedia: Tense, aspect and mood