tense
US: /ˈtɛns/
UK: /tˈɛns/
English - Vietnamese dictionary
tense /tens/- danh từ
- (ngôn ngữ học) thời (của động từ)
- the present tense: thời hiện tại
- the past tense: thời quá khứ
- (ngôn ngữ học) thời (của động từ)
- tính từ
- căng
- a tense wire: sợi dây căng
- căng thẳng, găng
- tense situation: tình hình căng thẳng
- căng
Advanced English dictionary
adjective, noun, verb+ adjective
1 (of a person) nervous or worried, and unable to relax: He's a very tense person. + She sounded tense and angry.
2 (of a situation, an event, a period of time, etc.) in which people have strong feelings such as worry, anger, etc. that often cannot be expressed openly: I spent a tense few weeks waiting for the results of the tests. + The atmosphere in the meeting was getting more and more tense.
3 (of a muscle or other part of the body) tight rather than relaxed: tense shoulders / hands + A massage will relax those tense muscles.
4 (of wire, etc.) stretched tightly
tensely adverb
tenseness noun [U]
+ noun (grammar) any of the forms of a verb that may be used to show the time of the action or state expressed by the verb: the past / present / future tense
+ verb
~ (sth) (up) to make your muscles tight and stiff, especially because you are not relaxed: [V] She tensed, hearing the strange noise again. + [VN] He tensed himself, listening to see if anyone had followed him.
Idioms: be / get tensed up to become or feel nervous or worried so that you cannot relax
Thesaurus dictionary
adj.
1 taut, strained, stiff, under tension, rigid:
One could see how tense the muscles were under the skin.
2 intense, nervous, anxious, under (a) strain, highly-strung, high-strung, strained, on edge, wrought up, keyed up, worked up, taut, on tenterhooks, apprehensive, distressed, upset, disturbed, worried, edgy, on pins and needles, jumpy, fidgety, overwrought, Colloq wound up, jittery, having a case of the jitters, Brit strung up, US strung out, Slang uptight, US antsy:
Try to relax and not be so tense.
3 nervous, anxious, worrying, worrisome, distressing, disturbing, stressful, nerve-racking or nerve-wracking, fraught, disquieting:
Those were tense moments while we waited for the winner's name to be posted.
v.
4 tighten, stretch, strain, tauten, tension:
The mast will be secure once the stays have been tensed.
Collocation
ADJ.
future, past, present | continuous, perfect, progressive, simple
the present simple tense
| verb
VERB + TENSE
use | form
‘Have’ is the auxiliary verb used to form perfect tenses.
TENSE + NOUN
marker | system
PREP.
in the … ~
In the sentence ‘I stroked the cat’, ‘stroked’ is in the past tense.
VERBS
be, feel, look, seem, sound | become, get, grow
The situation grew increasingly tense.
| remain
ADV.
extremely, incredibly, very | increasingly | a bit, a little, rather
I was feeling a bit tense and restless.
PREP.
about
There's no point in getting tense about the situation.
Concise dictionary
tenses|tensed|tensing|tenser|tensesttensnoun
+a grammatical category of verbs used to express distinctions of time
verb
+become stretched or tense or taught
+increase the tension on
+become tense, nervous, or uneasy
+cause to be tense and uneasy or nervous or anxious
adj.
+in or of a state of physical or nervous tension
+pronounced with relatively tense tongue muscles (e.g., the vowel sound in `beat')
+taut or rigid; stretched tight
