See Also: ANXIETY, NERVOUSNESS

1. Back … tense as a tiger’s —D. H. Lawrence
2. Body rigid from shoulder to belly as though he had been stricken with elphantiasis —Kenzaburo Oë
3. (There continued to be) a certain strain, like dangerously stretched rubber bands —Thalia Selz
4. Feel tension rising off me like a fever —Richard Ford
5. Feel the tension coming out of Justin like a fever —Paige Mitchell
6. Felt his insides drawn together like the lips of a wound —Helen Hudson
7. Felt like a swimmer about to dive —Marguerite Yourcenar
8. His solar plexus knotted up like a sea anemone —Ursula Le Guin
9. In times of stress I enter into a semicomatose state like an instinct-driven opossum —Leigh Allison Wilson
10. My back became like a stick —Natsume Söseki
11. My stomach drops as if I’m in a balky elevator —W. P. Kinsella
12. (Looked about as) relaxed as a safecracker —Joseph Wambaugh
13. Spines … stiffened like pulled twine —Louise Erdrich
14. Stiffen like a cat that’s been hit by something —Shirley Ann Grau
15. (When I approach you) stiffen like an egg white —Diane Ackerman
16. Stiffen like a stump —David Wagoner
17. Strung up like a piano wire —Elizabeth Spencer
18. (Body) taut like wire —Anaïs Nin
19. Tense and careful as a man handling a bomb —Dorothy Canfield Fisher

    See Also: CAUTION

20. Tense and fluttering like a fish out of water —George Garrett

    See Also: TREMBLING

21. Tense and still like a figure in a frieze —Ross Macdonald

    See Also: IMMOBILITY

22. Tense as an animal in fear, ready to snap or go limp beneath its keeper’s grasp —Louise Erdrich
23. (I lay) tense as a piano wire —W. P. Kinsella
24. Tense as a player on the bench —Maureen Howard, New York Times Magazine, May 25, 1986
25. Tense as a thoroughbred at the starting gate —Anon television feature on New York marathoners, November 1, 1986
26. Tense as a wound spring —Joseph Heller
27. (Voices) tense as barks —Edward Hoagland
28. (People were as) tense as fiddle strings —Dorothy Canfield Fisher
29. Tense as if my neck were tipped back, my mouth agape, and I was preparing for the dentist’s needle —W. P. Kinsella
30. Tense as rectitude —Norman Mailer
31. Tension broke like heat after a thunderstorm in a nervous burst of laughter —Lael Tucker Wertenbaker
32. Tension ran like a red-hot wire through the men —Marjory Stoneman Douglas
33. Tension stretching like taut wires across the room —Ross Macdonald
34. Tension … vibrates like a melancholy bell —David K. Shipler, New York Times Book Review, March 1, 1987
35. Tight as a duck —Graham Masterton

    The simile was found as part of a sex scene. In full context it reads: “With her own fingers, she slipped him inside her, and although she was as tight as a duck, she was also warm and wet and irresistible.”

36. (His hand was) tight as a knot —Ann Beattie
37. Tight as a man going to the electric chair —Norman Mailer

    Mailer before being interviewed by Mike Wallace.

38. Tight as a quivering string —David Nevin
39. Tight as a sheet on a hospital bed —Anon
40. (Throats were) tight as tourniquets —Karl Shapiro
41. Tightly controlled … as if he was tied down to his desk by leather straps —Anon White House colleague about Robert McFarlane during the Iran-Contra scandal, quoted in New York Times, March 2, 1987
42. (He always came back from the ballfield) turned tighter than the bolts on an automobile tire —Norman Keifetz

    The simile from a novel about a baseball player (The Sensation) continues as follows: “By that jack-handle known as ‘being a pro’.”