[ad. L. tens-us, pa. pple. of tendĕre to stretch.]
1. Drawn tight, stretched taut; strained to stiffness; tight, rigid: chiefly said of cords, fibers, or membranes. Opposed to lax, flaccid. Also transf. of a sensation, the breathing, the pulse.
1670. Phil. Trans., V. 2059. Whether the Mercury … be sustain’d by the external Air, or by a Tense matter within.
1676. Wiseman, Surg. (R.). The skin was tense, also rimpled and blistered.
1728. Rutty, in Phil. Trans., XXXV. 563. She complain’d … now and then of a tense Pain and a Difficulty in Respiration.
1756. C. Lucas, Ess. Waters, I. 75. Fiddle-strings are … much more tense in wet weather than in dry.
1802. Med. Jrnl., VIII. 518. A small spasmodic and very tense pulse of 120, which as the pain increased, resembled the vibration of a musical string.
1834. J. Forbes, Laennec’s Dis. Chest (ed. 4), 529. The artery remains full and tense, and resists strongly the compressing finger.
1879. Tourgee, Fool’s Err., xxxvi. 254. With every muscle as tense as those of the tiger waiting for his leap.
b. Entom. Applied to the abdomen when not divided or transversely folded, as in spiders.
1826. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., IV. 350. [Abdomen] Tense … when it is not folded. Ex. Most Araneidæ.
2. fig. In a state of nervous or mental strain or tension; strained; highly strung; ‘on the stretch’; excited, or excitable; keenly sensitive.
1821 Coleridge, in Blackw. Mag., X. 254. These distinctive faculties being in a tense and active state.
1845–6. De Quincey, Notes Gilfillan’s Lit. Portr., Wks. 1859, XII. 281. This collapse of a tense excitement.
1860. Holland, Miss Gilbert, ix. Her sensibilities, kept tense through the long winter,… refused to respond.
1876. Geo. Eliot, Dan. Der., III. xxi. Gwendolen … looked at her with tense expectancy, but was silent.
1902. R. Hichens, Londoners, 161. The house-party were now tense with excitement.
3. Comb., as tense-drawn, tense-fibred, etc.
1761. Pulteney, in Phil. Trans., LII. 353. Robust and tense fibred.
1891. Kipling, Light that Failed, vii. 134. The Americans, whose rasping voices … strain tense-drawn nerves to breaking-point.
1908. Westm. Gaz., 15 May, 2/1. The haggard, tense-eyed men, the expensively attired, withered, yet beautiful women.
