Sekirov Dictionary

tense

/tɛns/

adjective 4
noun 4
verb 3
forms 5
phrases 1

adjective4

Pulled taut, without any slack.
•
unable to feel calm or relax, because of pressure or a difficult situation
- You need to relax, all this overtime and stress is making you tense.
Characterized by strain (on the nerves, emotions, etc). (Compare charged.)
Produced with relative constriction of the vocal tract.

noun4

•
The property of indicating the point in time at which an action or state of being occurs or exists.
- Dyirbal verbs are not inflected for tense.
•
An inflected form of a verb that indicates tense.
- English only has a past tense and a non-past tense; it has no future tense.
•
A verb form or construction indicating a combination of tense, aspect, and mood.
- The "simple present" tense in English can have several meanings.
- The Spanish teacher told the student to use the imperfect tense instead of the preterite tense.
(nonstandard) A grammatical aspect.

verb3

To make tense.
•
To become tense.
- The driver and the man shouted angrily at each other and I tensed, ready for violence. But soon everyone in the tap-tap joined in, capping remarks, joking, telling chicken and goat stories. — 1983
To apply a tense to.

forms

tensed · tensing · tenses · tenser · tensest

Phrases with tense

tense up
To become tense.

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