intense

English

WOTD – 29 August 2023

Etymology

From Late Middle English intens, intense (“ardent, fervent; extreme, great, intense”), borrowed from Old French intense (modern French intense), or directly from its etymon Latin intēnsus (“strained, stretched tight; intense; attentive; violent; (rare) eager, intent”), the perfect passive participle of intendō (“to stretch out, strain”), from in- (prefix meaning ‘in, inside, within’) + tendō (“to extend, stretch”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *tend- (“to extend, stretch”)).

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈtɛns/
Audio (GA) (file)
Rhymes: -ɛns
Hyphenation: in‧tense

Adjective

intense (comparative intenser or more intense, superlative intensest or most intense)

Of a characteristic: extreme or very high or strong in degree; severe; also, excessive.
- 1666 September 17 (Gregorian calendar), John Evelyn, “”, in William Bray, editor, Memoirs, Illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn, , 2nd edition, volume I, London: Henry Colburn, ; and sold by John and Arthur Arch, , published 1819, →OCLC, page 396:
  Nor was I yet able to passe through any of the narrower streets, but kept the widest; the ground and air, smoake and fiery vapour, continu'd so intense that my haire was almost sing'd, and my feete unsufferably surbated.
- 1817 December (indicated as 1818), Percy B[ysshe] Shelley, “Canto Third”, in Laon and Cythna; or, The Revolution of the Golden City: A Vision of the Nineteenth Century. , London: or Sherwood, Neely, & Jones, ; and C and J Ollier, ; by B. M‘Millan, , →OCLC, stanza III, page 58:
  […] Nature had a robe of glory on, / And the bright air o'er every shape did weave / Intenser hues, so that the herbless stone, / The leafless bough among the leaves alone, / Had being clearer than its own could be, […]
- 1857, John Ruskin, “Lecture I”, in The Political Economy of Art: Being the Substance (with Additions) of Two Lectures Delivered at Manchester, July 10th and 13th, 1857, London: Smith, Elder and Co., , →OCLC, section II (Application), page 48:
  […] Pietro di Medici then gave, at the period of one great epoch of consummate power in the arts, the perfect, accurate, and intensest possible type of the greatest error which nations and princes can commit, respecting the power of genius entrusted to their guidance.
- 2013 June 29, “Floods in India: High and wet”, in The Economist‎, volume 407, number 8842, London: Economist Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2013-07-01, page 28:
  Floods in northern India, mostly in the small state of Uttarakhand, have wrought disaster on an enormous scale. The early, intense onset of the monsoon on June 14th swelled rivers, washing away roads, bridges, hotels and even whole villages.
Of a thing: possessing some characteristic to an extreme or very high or strong degree.
- 1821, Percy B[ysshe] Shelley, Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats, , Pisa, Italy: Didot; reprinted London: Noel Douglas , 1927, →OCLC, stanza XX, page 13:
  [T]h' intense atom glows / A moment, then is quenched in a most cold repose.
- a. 1822 (date written), John Keats, “[Tragedies.] Otho the Great: A Tragedy in Five Acts.”, in [Horace Elisha Scudder], editor, The Complete Poetical Works and Letters of John Keats, Cambridge edition, Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company , published 1899, →OCLC, Act V, scene v, page 189, column 1, lines 40–44:
  These pendent lamps and chandeliers are bright / As earthly fires from dull dross can be cleansed; / Yet could my eyes drink up intenser beams / Undazzled—this is darkness—when I close / These lids, i see far fiercer brilliances,— […]
- 1873, William Black, “The Princess Sheila”, in A Princess of Thule. , New York, N.Y., London: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, page 463:
  As the night came on the yellow stars grew more intense overhead, but the lambent glow in the north did not pale.
Of feelings, thoughts, etc.: strongly focused; ardent, deep, earnest, passionate.
intense study intense thought
- 1645 March 14 (Gregorian calendar), John Milton, Tetrachordon: Expositions upon the Foure Chief Places in Scripture, which Treat of Mariage, or Nullities in Mariage. , London: [s.n.], →OCLC, pages 8–9:
  No mortall nature can endure either in the actions of Religion, or ſtudy of VViſdome, vvithout ſometime ſlackning the cords of intenſe thought and labour: […]
- , [Daniel Defoe], “Part I”, in Memoirs of a Cavalier: Or A Military Journal of the Wars in Germany, and the Wars in England; from the Year 1632, to the Year 1648. , London: A. Bell , J. Osborn , W Taylor , and T. Warner , →OCLC, page 50:
  VVe found the Elector intenſe upon the ſtrengthening of his Army, […]
- 1797, Ann Radcliffe, chapter XI, in The Italian, or The Confessional of the Black Penitents. A Romance. , volume I, London: T Cadell Jun. and W Davies (successors to Mr. Cadell) , →OCLC, pages 308–309:
  The ceremony began vvith the exhortation of the Father-Abbot, delivered vvith ſolemn energy; then the novice kneeling before him, made her profeſſion, for vvhich Vivaldi liſtened vvith intenſe attention, but it vvas delivered in ſuch lovv and trembling accents, that he could not aſcertain even the tone.
- 1828, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter XX, in Pelham; or, The Adventures of a Gentleman. , volume II, London: Henry Colburn, , →OCLC, page 196:
  I rose by candle-light, and consumed, in the intensest application, the hours which every other individual of our party wasted in enervating slumbers, from the hesternal dissipation or debauch.
- 1849, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter III, in The History of England from the Accession of James II, volume I, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC, page 353:
  That intense patriotism which is peculiar to the members of societies congregated within a narrow space was, in such circumstances, strongly developed.
- 1882, Ouida [pseudonym; Maria Louise Ramé], chapter VII, in In Maremma , volume I, London: Chatto & Windus, , →OCLC, page 155:
  [H]er voice gave intensest passion and longing to the words; […]
- 1886, Annie Besant, Life, Death, and Immortality, London: Freethought Publishing Company, , →OCLC, page 3:
  Of all the questions which, throughout the centuries, have escaped from the lips of man, there is none which has been asked with such persistence, none which has possessed interest more perennial, than "Whence do I come? Whither shall I go?" Man's origin, man's hereafter, have ever been of intensest interest to man.
- 1894, Louis Couperus, chapter II, in A[lexander] Teixeira de Mattos, Ernest Dowson, transl., Majesty, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, →OCLC, section VI, page 103:
  And the strange sensation became still stranger within her, intenser in its two constituent parts: intenser in pride, intenser in compassionate love—that of a mistress and a mother in one.
Of a person: very emotional or passionate.
The artist was a small, intense man with piercing blue eyes.
- 1879 June 14, [George du Maurier], “Refinements of Modern Speech”, in Punch, or The London Charivari, volume LXXVI, London: Bradbury, Agnew, & Co., , →OCLC, page 270:
  Fair Æsthetic (suddenly, and in deepest tones, to Smith, who has just been introduced to take her in to Dinner). "Are you Intense?"
(also figurative) Under tension; tightly drawn; strained, stressed, tense.