tense
adjective
[ tɛns ]
• (especially of a muscle) stretched tight or rigid.
• "she tried to relax her tense muscles"
• unable to relax because of nervousness, anxiety, or stimulation.
• "he was tense with excitement"
tense
verb
• become tense, typically through anxiety or nervousness.
• "her body tensed up"
Origin:
late 17th century: from Latin tensus ‘stretched’, from the verb tendere .
tense
noun
• a set of forms taken by a verb to indicate the time (and sometimes also the continuance or completeness) of the action in relation to the time of the utterance.
• "the future tense"
Origin:
Middle English (in the general sense ‘time’): from Old French tens, from Latin tempus ‘time’.
