| 释义 |
tension, n.|ˈtɛnʃən|
Also 7–8 tention.
[prob. a. F. tension (a 1530 in Godef. Compl.), ad. late L. tensiōn-em, n. of action f. tendĕre to stretch (pa. pple. tens-us, tent-us). But the Eng. word may have been direct from 16th c. medical Latin.
With tension agree distension, extension, pretension; the variant tention agrees with attention, contention, intention.]
The action of stretching or condition of being stretched: in various senses.
1. a. Physiol. and Path. The condition, in any part of the body, of being stretched or strained; a sensation indicating or suggesting this; a feeling of tightness. (The earliest use in English.)
1533Elyot Cast. Helthe (1541) 59 b, There is felt within the bulke of a man..a weyghtynesse with tension, or thrustyng outwarde. 1603Holland Plutarch's Mor. 656 The veines..upon the tention and commotion whereof..drunkennesse doth proceed. 1615Crooke Body of Man 739 The first is a streatching or Tention not without strife or contention. 1704F. Fuller Med. Gymn. (1705) 30 What I mean by this Tension or Tone of the Parts. 1725Bradley's Fam. Dict. s.v. Vomiting, The tention of the Hypocondria and confus'd Sight. 1756Burke Subl. & B. iv. iii, An unnatural tension of the nerves. 1855H. Spencer Princ. Psychol. ii. xi. §55. 213 A correspondingly strong sensation of muscular tension.
b. Bot. Applied to a strain or pressure in the cells or tissues of plants arising from changes taking place in the course of growth.
1875Bennett & Dyer Sachs' Bot. 708 Causes of the condition of Tension in Plants. The elasticity of the organised parts of plants results in tension chiefly from the operation of three causes. Ibid. 713 In a turgid cell, the cell-wall is..in a state of negative, the contents in a state of positive tension. Ibid. 720 It is only when the epidermis is becoming cuticularised and the walls of the bast-cells are beginning to thicken that the tensions become perceptible.
2. fig. A straining, or strained condition, of the mind, feelings, or nerves.
a. Straining of the mental powers or faculties; severe or strenuous intellectual effort; intense application.
a1763Shenstone Economy i. 151 When fancy's vivid spark impels the soul To scorn quotidian scenes,..what nostrum shall compose Its fatal tension? 1826W. Gifford Let. in Smiles Mem. J. Murray (1891) II. xxv. 172 It is a fearful thing to break down the mind by unremitted tension. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) IV. 12 The mind cannot be always in a state of intellectual tension.
b. Nervous or emotional strain; intense suppressed excitement; a strained condition of feeling or mutual relations which is for the time outwardly calm, but is likely to result in a sudden collapse, or in an outburst of anger or violent action of some kind.
1847Disraeli Tancred iv. vi, The expression..of extreme tension..had disappeared. 1852Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. vii, As the danger decreased with the distance, the supernatural tension of the nervous system lessened. 1878Lecky Eng. in 18th C. II. vii. 311 Society cannot permanently exist in a condition of extreme tension. 1885L'pool Daily Post 11 Apr. 64/7 A tension of feeling which has had no parallel since the outbreak of the Crimean war.
c. Esp. in Psychol. A condition of strain produced by anxiety, need, or by a sense of mental, emotional, or physical disequilibrium; also attrib. or as adj.
1884W. James in Mind IX. 12 The states of tension..have as positive an influence as the discharges in determining the total condition, and consequently in deciding what the psychosis shall be to which the complex neurosis corresponds. 1925H. M. & E. R. Guthrie tr. Janet's Princ. Psychotherapy iv. 234 Psychic tension [is] characterized by the degree of activation and the hierarchical degree of acts. 1930J. Riviere tr. Freud's Civilization & its Discontents 127 The sense of guilt..is..the ego's appreciation of the tension between its strivings and the standards of the super-ego; and the anxiety that lies behind. 1935Adams & Zener tr. Lewin's Dynamic Theory of Personality ii. 59 A tendency may readily be observed toward immediate discharge of tension (to a state of equilibrium at the lowest possible state of tension). 1958H. A. Murray in G. Lindzey Assessment of Human Motives vii. 194 The concept of human nature..is a concept of perpetually recurrent drives, or tensions.
d. The conflict created by interplay of the constituent elements of a work of art. Used esp. of poetry. (See also quot. 1941.)
1941A. Tate Reason in Madness 72, I proposed..the term tension..using the term not as a general metaphor, but as a special one, derived from lopping the prefixes off the logical terms extension and intension... The meaning of poetry is its ‘tension’, the full organized body of all the extension and intension that we can find in it. 1949Poetry Feb. 305 Tension,..the resultant effectual unity of the poem derived from the operation of such conflict-structures as wit, paradox and irony, slackness being the result of a failure in tension. 1957N. Frye Anat. Crit. 256 It is more likely to be the harsh, rugged, dissonant poem..that will show in poetry the tension and the driving accented impetus of music. 1975Language LI. 583 Metrical tension can be construed as the degree of difference between underlying and derived metrical patterns.
3. a. Physics. A constrained condition of the particles of a body when subjected to forces acting in opposite directions away from each other (usually along the body's greatest length), thus tending to draw them apart, balanced by forces of cohesion holding them together; the force or combination of forces acting in this way, esp. as a measurable quantity. (The opposite of compression or pressure.)
1685Boyle Effects of Mot. viii. 92 If you cut the string of a bent bow asunder, the..extreams will fly from one another suddenly and forcibly enough to manifest that they were before in a violent state of Tension. 1782V. Knox Ess. xxi. I. 101 The string which is constantly kept in a state of tension will vibrate on the slightest impulse. 1825J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 570 The strain occasioned by pulling timber in the direction of its length is called tension. 1853Kane Grinnell Exp. xxviii. (1856) 232 The tension of the great field of ice over which we passed must have been enormous. It had a sensible curvature. 1881Metal World No. 18. 277 A weight being placed on a beam or girder (..resting on the support at each end..), the top is..thrown into compression and the bottom into tension.
b. Biol. and Med. (also Physics) = pressure 2 a.
1678Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. v. 851 A pressure upon the optick nerve, by reason of a tension of the intermedious air, or æther. 1826Faraday Exp. Res. xxxiii. 200 The air..has a certain degree of elasticity, or tension. 1844Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl. VII. 155/1 The steam..is retained between the boiler and the plate until by its ‘tension’ or elasticity it is forced downwards and underneath the edge of the plate. 1863Tyndall Heat i. §9 (1870) 8 He wishes to apply the force of his steam, or of the furnace which gives tension to his steam, to this particular purpose. 1906W. Marriott Hints to Meteorol. Observers (ed. 6) 69/1 Tension of vapour. 1907J. H. Parsons Dis. Eye ii. 18 The pressure inside the eye is called the intraocular pressure, or the tension, of the eye. 1940Jrnl. Bacteriol. XXXIX. 307 (heading) The effect of oxygen tension on the oxygen uptake of lake bacteria. 1971Brit. Med. Bull. XXVII. 55/2 The oxygen tension in the arterial blood may be somewhat lowered. 1972A. H. Halasa Basic Aspects of Glaucomas xi. 97 Low tension glaucoma refers to a condition characterized by a normal intraocular pressure associated with..glaucomatous visual field defects.
c. transf. The degree of tightness or looseness of the stitches in machine sewing or in knitting. Hence (also tension-device), a device in a sewing-machine for regulating the tightness of the stitch.
1877Knight Dict. Mech. s.v., By adjustment of the pressure at the tension device, the required tightness of stitch is obtained... There are many..kinds of tensions, in different machines. Fig. 6309 shows the..automatic tension... The automatic tension-device..is placed in the standard of the machine. 1932D. C. Minter Mod. Needlecraft 199/2 Learn how to regulate machine stitch and tension. 1933Tillotson & Minter Compl. Knitting Bk. ii. 21 The knitted loops, for a correct tension, should just cling lightly and closely to the reader. 1950J. Norbury Knitter's Craft i. 10 A loose tension will produce a flabby, ill-fitting garment. 1973Tucson (Arizona) Daily Citizen 22 Aug. 3 (Advt.), Brother sewing machine Lightweight zig zag..fingertip touch tension. 1980C. Fremlin With no Crying x. 61 Alison was concentrating on those first vital rows of her knitting, making sure that she was getting the tension right.
4. Electr. The stress along lines of force in a dielectric. Formerly applied also to surface density of electric charge, and until about 1882 used vaguely as a synonym for potential, electromotive force, and mechanical force exerted by electricity: still so applied, in industrial and commercial use, in high and low tension: see sense 5.
1785G. Adams Essay on Electricity (ed. 2) x. 208 The whole energy of electricity depends on its tension, or the force with which it endeavours to fly off from the electrified body. 1802Nicholson's Jrnl. Nat. Phil. I. 137 (tr. Volta) In the one case, as well as in the other, the electric tension [la tensione elettrica] rises, during the contact, to the same point. 1833Faraday Exp. Res. (1855) I. 97 The attractions and repulsions due to the tension of ordinary electricity. 1837Brewster Magnet. 159 The sun heating and illuminating the earth, and producing a magnetic tension. 1839G. Bird Nat. Phil. 218 On their separation they are found to possess..a certain quantity of free electricity of low tension. 1841W. Francis (tr. Ohm 1827) in Taylor's Sci. Mem. II. 416 (Ohm's Law) The force of the current in a galvanic circuit is directly as the sum of all the tensions [die Summe aller Spannungen], and inversely as the entire reduced length of the circuit. 1849Noad Electricity (ed. 3) 135 Tension, Mr. Harris applies to the actual force of a charge to break down any non-conducting or dielectric medium between two terminating electrified planes. 1866R. M. Ferguson Electr. (1870) 64 Tension is the power to polarise and effect discharge. 1871Tyndall Fragm. Sc. (1879) II. xvi. 439 Such machines deliver a large quantity of electricity of low tension. 1873Maxwell Electr. & Magn. (1881) I. 59 Finding the phrase electric tension used in several vague senses, I have attempted to confine it to..the state of stress in the dielectric medium which causes motion of the electrified bodies, and leads, when continually augmented, to disruptive discharge. 1881S. P. Thompson Electr. & Magn. 203 note, The word tension..is so often misapplied in text-books... The term would be invaluable if we might adopt it to denote only the mechanical stress across a dielectric, due to accumulated charges. 1882Nature 12 Oct. 570/2 M. Gariel breaks free from servitude to the consecrated term ‘tension’, so often misused as a synonym for potential, electro-motive force, and we know not what.
fig.1859Kingsley Misc. (1860) II. 75 Everything..has exasperated, not calmed, the electric tension of the European atmosphere.
5. high tension: a high degree of tension (of any kind);
a. esp. in Electr., a term for a high degree of electromotive force or difference of potential: now chiefly used by makers of motor-cars, and of magnetic and induction coils. So low tension. (See sense 4.) Chiefly attrib. as in high or low tension system (of electric lighting, etc.); also h. t. or l. t. charge, contact, current, fuse, etc.
1833Faraday in Phil. Trans. R. Soc. CXXIII. 516, I was anxious..to obtain some idea of the conducting power of ice and solid salts by electricity of high tension. 1877Telegr. Jrnl. V. 289/2 (heading) On the effects produced by electric currents of high tension. 1889Daily News 7 Oct. 3/1 Mr. Crompton does not say that the high tension system will not succeed. He says both will succeed; but that the low tension system is safer and cheaper. 1891Cent. Dict. s.v. Tension, A body is said to have a high-tension charge, or a charge of high-tension electricity, and a conductor to carry a high-tension current, when the stress in the medium surrounding the body or the conductor is high. 1900Engineering Mag. XIX. 715 When required for high-tension fuses, the armature of this exploder is wound with very fine wire; when for low-tension, with coarse wire. 1903Motor. Ann. 221 The low tension system is one which will undoubtedly come to the fore. In this the actual current from the battery, or magneto machine, is interrupted inside the cylinder, thus causing a spark. 1906Westm. Gaz. 13 Nov. 4/2 High-tension magneto, it is noted, is gaining in popularity—the low-tension system being confined almost exclusively to the very high-priced cars. 1907Ibid. 5 Dec. 4/2 The low-tension make and break is made on platinum points by means of a cam, whilst the high-tension contact is made through metal contacts by a revolving carbon brush.
b. Of the pulse: cf. tense a. 1 (quot. 1802).
1898Allbutt's Syst. Med. V. 983 The low-tension pulse presents marked fluctuations of the base line. Ibid. 1024 Sir W. Broadbent considers that this modified high tension pulse is almost constant in mitral stenosis.
c. transf. and fig.
1898G. B. Shaw Candida iii. 148 Eugene, strung to the highest tension, does not move a muscle. 1906J. M. Synge Let. ? 6 Nov. (1971) 47, I am working now at very high tension. 1959D. Cooke Lang. Music iv. 183 The high-tension ‘current’ of Beethoven's emotion, we may say, had to be converted into a high-tension rhythmic energy.
6. attrib. and Comb., as tension area, tension device (see 3 c), tension thrill; spec. applied to parts of a structure subjected to tensile stress, as tension-member, tension-rod; (in sense 2) tension state, tension system; tension-relieving adj.; tension bar, (a) (see quot. 1879); (b) a metal bar used to apply pressure or exert tension; tension-bridge, a bridge in which there is tensile stress between parts of the structure, as a bowstring-bridge (see bowstring 3, and quot. below); tension-fuse, a form of electric fuse which is fired by a spark at a break in a circuit; tension magnet (see quot.); tension-pulley, -roller, a free pulley or roller over which a belt, etc. passes to keep it stretched tight; a tightening-pulley; tension-rail, a rail for stretching cloth during the process of printing; tension-spicule, in sponges (see quot.); tension spring, (a) a spring for carriages, etc. composed of inner and outer leaves, connected at the ends, but free in the middle, so as to elongate independently under strain; (b) a spring used to maintain a required degree of tautness; tension wood = reaction wood s.v. reaction 5.
1871Tyndall Fragm. Sc. I. i. 20 At the beginning the vis viva was zero and the *tension area was a maximum.
1879Car-Builder's Dict. 163/1 *Tension bar, a bar which is subjected to a strain of tension. 1963R. A. Higham Handbk. Papermaking viii. 212 Tension bars are usually found on calendars, especially when treating light-weight papers, and in action these serve to keep the sheet flat and taut across the working width. 1977‘E. McBain’ Long Time no See xiii. 215 The telephone was as vital a tool to policemen as was a tension bar to a burglar.
1877Knight Dict. Mech., *Tension-bridge, a bridge constructed on the principle of the bow, the arch supporting the track by means of tension-rods, and the string acting as a tie.
1890Cent. Dict. s.v. Fuse, *Tension-fuse, an electric fuse in which the conducting circuit is not complete, the firing being accomplished by the passage of a spark.
1891Ibid. s.v., An electromagnet surrounded by a coil of many turns and high electrical resistance was called by Henry a *tension magnet.
1844Stephens Bk. Farm II. 303 For the purpose of keeping a due degree of tension on the chain, a small movable *tension pulley is applied.
1890W. J. Gordon Foundry 169 To..draw in the apparently endless plain white calico, zigzagging it over *tension rails, and running it on, giving it an extra colour at every turn.
1949Koestler Insight & Outlook 421 Neglect of the emotional dynamics of laughter, of its *tension-relieving aspect. 1974M. C. Gerald Pharmacol. xi. 201 Quiet World contains ‘special calming and tension-relieving ingredients’.
1838Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. I. 126/1 Each pair of rafters is tied by means of a *tension rod. Ibid. 381/1 The platform, or roadway, was laid upon cast iron beams, suspended from the main chains by perpendicular iron bars or tension rods, about five feet apart.
1835Ure Philos. Manuf. 196 The *tension or stretching-roller has its axle mounted in the segment-racks as usual.
1886Von Lendenfeld in Proc. Zool. Soc. 21 Dec. 564 Called Flesh-spicules or Microsclera (*Tension-spicules of Bowerbank).
1877Knight Dict. Mech., *Tension-spring, a spring for wagons, railway-carriages, etc... The outer leaves..impart a tensile strain to the inner ones. 1966J. S. Cox Illustr. Dict. Hairdressing & Wigmaking 148/1 Tension spring, a spirally wound and flattened wire spring which, when stretched returns to its original length... The tension spring is sometimes replaced by elastic. 1970Which? Aug. 238/2 A faulty tension spring on the bobbin case stopped the tensioning adjustment from working properly.
1946Mind LV. 149 We have, therefore, to discover these responses that are the most successful in resolving the personal *tension state of which political argument is the expression. 1977J. D. Douglas in Douglas & Johnson Existential Sociol. i. 43 Anomie appears to be a tension state that is produced in the individual by an inability to achieve success by legitimate means.
1936Mind XLV. 248 The technique which seeks to make an undesired goal palatable or a desired goal unpalatable, by linking them up somehow with the ‘natural’ *tension-systems of the child. 1953M. Horwitz in Cartwright & Zander Group Dynamics xx. 371 Individuals develop tension systems coordinated to reaching their own goals.
1893T. E. Brown Old John, etc. 111 To him the sorrows are the *tension-thrills Of that serene endeavour.
1924W. S. Jones Timbers iv. 27 ‘*Tension’ or ‘white’ wood differs from ‘red’ wood in that the cell walls of the tracheids show a well-developed, strongly-lignified, tertiary layer. 1951McLean & Ivimey-Cook Textbk. Theoret. Bot. I. xxi. 907 In conifers the lower wood is reddish, the upper white..the upper wood being called tension-wood. 1972Gloss. Terms Timber (B.S.I.) 15 Tension wood. Abnormal wood..formed typically on the upper sides of branches and of leaning or crooked trunks of hardwood trees.
Hence ˈtension v. trans., to subject to tension, tighten, make taut (hence ˈtensioned ppl. a., ˈtensioning vbl. n.); ˈtensional a., of, pertaining to, of the nature of, or affected with tension; ˈtensionally adv., by means of tension, as a result of tension; ˈtensionless a., without tension, unstrained.
1891Engineer LXXI. 120/2 [List of patents.] *Tensioning saddles of velocipedes, F. A. Matthews, London. 1950Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. LIV. 631/1 The ‘floating stud’..is a slotted template stud contained in a metal ring, and tensioned by three or four springs. 1975Kong & Evans Reinforced & Prestressed Concrete ix. 196 When the concrete has hardened sufficiently, the tendons are tensioned by jacking against one or both ends of the member.
1872Daily News 28 Feb., The whole nation was hanging in a *tensioned spasm of fear. a1879Tyndall (Webster Supp.), A highly tensioned string. 1893De Long in Chicago Advance 28 Sept., How tensioned are our nerves! 1898Cycling 48 Upon the correct *tensioning of the spokes [of a bicycle] depends the ‘truth’ of the wheel. 1906Cycl. Tour. Club Gaz. Aug. 311 The tensioning is done by turning the three screws at the back of the saddle upwards from the right to left, so as to withdraw them. Most riders make the mistake when tensioning the saddle of turning the screws the wrong way.
1862Catal. Internat. Exhib. II. x. 6 The *tensional parts of a pair of rigid trusses. 1881Athenæum 2 July 16/3 The total energy of vibrations as being made up of two parts, one statical or tensional, and the other kinetic.
1960R. W. Marks Dymaxion World of B. Fuller 195 Magnesium ball-jointed tripods..were *tensionally opened by piston-elevated masts. 1975New Yorker 12 May 41/1 Tensionally cohered universe here today and gone tomorrow.
1905Dundee Advertiser 22 Dec. 9/2 A lecture on the subject of ‘The *Tensionless Drive’. The lecturer treated of the efficacy of belts as a means of transmitting power.
▸ tension headache n. a headache resulting from muscular tension (usually of the neck or shoulders), esp. as a consequence of stress.
1947N.Y. Times 24 Apr. 28/6 Most headaches that come on in children after seeing the movies are ‘excitement headaches’—a form of *tension headaches, and they are not helped by glasses. 1959Times 13 July 9/6 (advt.) How tension headaches start. Many headaches start somewhere you'd never suspect—in the muscles of the back of the neck and scalp. 1997M. L. Elkiss & L. E. Rentz in R. C. Ward Found. Osteopathic Med. xxxiv. 404/1 Does it pound like a vascular headache or squeeze like a tension headache? |