tense

ten-finger interface = T = tentacle

tense adj.

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.

--Jargon File, autonoded by rescdsk.

EDIT ME!
The Everyone Project.
Log in: "everyone" Password: "everyone"
First created by: rescdsk
Modified by: (nobody)

Tense (?), 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.

© Webster 1913.

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 1913.