[f. TENSE a. + -NESS.] The state or condition of being tense (lit. or fig.).
1707. Floyer, Physic. Pulse-Watch, 29. The Tenseness makes the Distention less.
1776. Saunders, in T. Percival, Ess. (1776), III. App. 307. According to the uniformity there is between the tenseness of the fibres of the several boards, and the tone of the different pipes.
1904. W. M. Ramsay, Lett. to 7 Ch., xix. 261. [Grace] strains the city like a lyre into tenseness harmonious with itself.
