tense up
verb
Simple meaning
Become tense, nervous.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
tehnsuhpSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈtɛnˈsʌp
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
Become tense, nervous, or uneasy
“He tensed up when he saw his opponent enter the room.”
Cause to be tense and uneasy or nervous or anxious
“He got a phone call from his lawyer that tensed him up.”
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: Become tense, nervous, or uneasy
Used this way, tense up is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.