Showing signs of stress or strain; not relaxed. / Pulled taut, without any slack.

(transitive) To make tense. / (intransitive) To become tense.

(grammar) A grammatical tense whose principal function is to locate a situation or event in the present time.

(grammar) The tense or time form of a verb used to refer to an event or occurrence that has not yet happened or is expected to happen in the future.

(grammar) A grammatical form (often a verb form) that refers to an event, transaction, occurrence, or object that happened (or had happened), or existed, at some time before now (the applicable reference time).

The condition of being held in a state between two or more forces, which are acting in opposition to each other. / Psychological state of being tense.

To place an object in tension, to pull or place strain on.

A verb form indicating that an action or state has been completed at the present time, in the past, or shall be completed in the future.

(grammar, of a verb) Tense of a verb used when referring to something that happened before a past setting or the imperfect; formed in English by adding had before the past participle of a verb, or by adding had been before the present participle of the verb.

(grammar) A tense used in some languages (such as French and Italian) in narrative, and in spoken language primarily when reading narrative or in storytelling, for completed actions in the past or in speaking of the dead. It is semantically the same as the simple past in many languages, including English.