Webster
✕

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Tense

Tense (tĕns), n. [OF. tens, properly, time, F. temps time, tense. See Temporal of time, and cf. Thing.] (Gram.) One of the forms which a verb takes by inflection or by adding auxiliary words, so as to indicate the time of the action or event signified; the modification which verbs undergo for the indication of time.

☞ The primary simple tenses are three: those which express time past, present, and future; but these admit of modifications, which differ in different languages.

Tense, a. [L. tensus, p. p. of tendere to stretch. See Tend to move, and cf. Toise.] Stretched tightly; strained to stiffness; rigid; not lax; as, a tense fiber.

The temples were sunk, her forehead was tense, and a fatal paleness was upon her. Goldsmith.

— Tense′ly, adv. — Tense′ness, n.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.