to tense
32
4.0
- verb
- /tɛns/
- When she heard the loud noise, she instinctively tensed her muscles and prepared for the impact.
- tense your muscles
- the body tenses
- tense your jaw
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Watch on YouTubeFeel the muscles in your chest, in your abdomen, firing, tensing as you're pulling yourself up.
- Feel the muscles in your chest, in your abdomen, firing, tensing as you're pulling yourself up.
- Feel the muscles in your chest, in your abdomen, in your shoulders tensing as you start to lift yourself up.
- Although ironically, Steve tenses, would tense up, and then he got really bad arthritis from it.
- If I kind of tense my legs and my arms, then we can sort of get a more extreme reaction there.
- So bats clearly tense their middle ear muscles right before they make this echolocating pulse.
- And again my fists clenched, my body tensed, and I remembered that promise I had made to myself, that I would take a stand.
- Everybody can't move their penis without tensing their ass off.
Examples
-
My shoulders tense up when I travel.
-
The more you tense up, the worse it gets.
Fiction book (1991) -
But seriously, next time try not to tense up.
-
Next time, don't tense up your body.
-
You wouldn't want me to tense up, would you?
-
Don't tense up now, honey.
-
Your heart pounds, your muscles tense, your breathing gets faster and you begin to sweat.
-
Pulling one of her hands away from the doll, she tenses with fear.
Fiction book (1992) -
As he bends over her, she tenses in fear.
Fiction book (2000) -
Feel the muscles in your chest, in your abdomen, in your shoulders tensing as you start to lift yourself up.
Synonyms
34
3.7
To make or become hard and less able to bend
19
3.9
To make someone feel tense or nervous
11
3.7
To make your muscles tight when you feel nervous
1
4.4
To make something tight by pulling it
Antonyms
Phrasal Verbs
Compounds
- Specialized
1
4.2
A verb form that shows an action finished before now or another event
- Specialized
1
8.9
A verb form showing one past action happened before another past action
- Specialized
1
3.9
A verb form for an action that finished before another past action
- Specialized
1
3.7
A verb form that shows an action is continuing at a specific time
- Specialized
1
6.3
To talk about past actions that happened often or were still happening
- Specialized
1
3.4
A verb tense used to talk about actions that happened before now and still matter
- Specialized
1
4.0
Shows an action that was happening at a certain time in the past
- Specialized
1
5.1
A verb form that shows an action will finish before a future time
- Specialized
A verb form showing an action that will be happening at a certain time in the future
- Specialized
An ending or small change to a verb that shows it happened before now
- Specialized
A verb form that shows an action has finished and focuses on the result
- Specialized
A small ending added to a verb to show present time, like the -s in runs
How Tense
Surface Forms
Etymology
Tense as a verb comes from the Latin root tendere meaning 'to stretch', the same root as tension. So to tense a muscle is to make it tight or stretched.