tense up

Questions about tense up

What does tense up mean?

tense up means "become tense, nervous, or uneasy". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for tense up?

Close synonyms include tense, tense, strain. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is tense up a common word?

tense up is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.