[tens] 
,adjective, tens⋅er, tens⋅est, verb, tensed, tens⋅ing.| 1. | stretched tight, as a cord, fiber, etc.; drawn taut; rigid. |
| 2. | in a state of mental or nervous strain; high-strung; taut: a tense person. |
| 3. | characterized by a strain upon the nerves or feelings: a tense moment. |
| 4. | Phonetics. pronounced with relatively tense tongue muscles; narrow. Compare lax (def. 7). |
| 5. | to make or become tense. |
[tens] ,| 1. | a category of verbal inflection that serves chiefly to specify the time of the action or state expressed by the verb. |
| 2. | a set of such categories or constructions in a particular language. |
| 3. | the time, as past, present, or future, expressed by such a category. |
| 4. | such categories or constructions, or their meanings collectively. |
| tense 1 (těns) adj. tens·er, tens·est
To make or become tense. [Latin tēnsus, past participle of tendere, to stretch; see ten- in Indo-European roots.] tense'ly adv., tense'ness n. |
| tense 2 (těns) n.
[Middle English tens, from Old French, time, from Latin tempus.] |
tense
Of programs, very clever and efficient. A tense piece of code often got that way because it was highly bummed, but sometimes it was just based on a great idea. A comment in a clever routine by Mike Kazar, once a grad-student hacker at CMU: "This routine is so tense it will bring tears to your eyes." A tense programmer is one who produces tense code.
[The Jargon File]