As tense as a

Grammar usage guide and real-world examples

The shoot became as tense as a countdown Hollywood thriller.

Although Espinoza's arms looked as tense as a water skier's behind a boat, he said War Emblem relaxed.

Each line is as tense as a well- thrown rope, and the drawing has a double energy that is perfectly shared.

As tense as a clenched fist and just as communicative, Fausta (Magaly Solier), the heroine of "The Milk of Sorrow," scuttles around her mountainside neighborhood in Lima, peering from beneath bangs like guillotine blades.

When Anthony was a teen-ager, he'd been as tense as a whiplash, swaggering around with his shirt half unbuttoned, his eyebrows pierced, stinking to heaven of Lynx aftershave, hanging out with all the worst types on the estate.

ON the campus of the Culinary Institute of America, the New York culinary school whose alumni include many of the biggest names in cooking, the mood is as tense as a Gordon Ramsay kitchen.

They began the game as tense as an archery bow.

In the latest maneuver in a longstanding affair as tense as any courtroom case (and just as drawn out), the producers of the David Mametplay "Race" said on Friday that its Broadway production would remain open through Aug. 21, but that three of its key cast members would not stick around that long.

Other sections are as tense as any thriller.

There are scenes here that are as tense as any in "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy," and the access that Weiser gained his sources include both Kuklinski and the Poles he fooled is a feat of patient and intelligent reporting.

Mr. Obama sought to inject some lightness into what his aides called "a businesslike relationship" with Mr. Putin, and certainly the presidents' joint appearance was not as tense as a year ago, when they met at an international forum in Mexico.