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/tˈɛnʃən/ Listen

Tension

noun

(psychology) a state of mental or emotional strain or suspense. Synonyms: stress, tenseness. "Stress is a vasoconstrictor"

The physical condition of being stretched or strained. Synonyms: tautness, tenseness, tensity. "He could feel the tenseness of her body"

A balance between and interplay of opposing elements or tendencies (especially in art or literature). "There is a tension between these approaches to understanding history"

(physics) a stress that produces an elongation of an elastic physical body.

Feelings of hostility that are not manifest. Synonym: latent hostility. "The diplomats' first concern was to reduce international tensions"

The action of stretching something tight.

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"Tension" Quotes from Famous Books

... toleration must be considerable, then. Do you suppose a water-wave is like a harp-string? Vibration is the movement of a body in a state of tension,—undulation, that of a body absolutely lax. In vibration, not an atom of the body changes its place in relation to another,—in undulation, not an atom of the body remains in the same place with regard to another. In vibration, every particle of the body ignores gravitation, ...

— The Storm-Cloud of the Nineteenth Century - Two Lectures delivered at the London Institution February - 4th and 11th, 1884 • John Ruskin

... of the children, I suppose. Though I do not shriek aloud, probably something shrieks within me. I was passing a small chapel and heard a singular voice. I don't know exactly why I went into the place, but when I sat down inside I felt the tension of the atmosphere at once. Every one looked anxious or terrified. There were pale faces and stony or wild eyes. It did not seem to be an ordinary service and voices kept breaking out with spasmodic appeals, 'Almighty God, look down ...

— Robin • Frances Hodgson Burnett

... get away." Our relations with the Porte held out a prospect of hard work, and that, he explained, was what he needed. He could never be satisfied to sit down among the ruins. I saw that, like most of us in moments of extreme moral tension, he was playing a part, behaving as he thought it became a man to behave in the eye of disaster. The instinctive posture of grief is a shuffling compromise between defiance and prostration; and pride feels the need of striking a worthier attitude in face of such a ...

— Crucial Instances • Edith Wharton

... and the nervous tension of the men it was after sunset before the roof of the fort was finished. It was agreed that the men with families should sleep in the fort that night with the single men occupying the cabins nearest ...

— A Virginia Scout • Hugh Pendexter

... place in "Dawes'," which Mavis did at her interview with Mr Skeffington Dawes (one of the directors of the firm), her first sensation was one of disappointment, perhaps consequent upon reaction from the tension in her mind until she ...

— Sparrows - The Story of an Unprotected Girl • Horace W. C. Newte

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