rough-and-tumble vs tense

rough-and-tumble

adj
  • active, vigorous and rough, with the possibility of harm 

  • highly competitive 

verb
  • Engage in rough-and-tumble activity 

noun
  • An environment of rough activity 

  • Rough activity; fighting or brawling; a fight. 

  • A person who characteristically engages in such activity 

tense

adj
  • Showing signs of stress or strain; not relaxed. 

  • Pulled taut, without any slack. 

verb
  • To apply a tense to. 

  • To make tense. 

  • To become tense. 

noun
  • Any of the forms of a verb which distinguish when an action or state of being occurs or exists. 

  • The property of indicating the point in time at which an action or state of being occurs or exists. 

  • An inflected form of a verb that indicates tense. 

How often have the words rough-and-tumble and tense occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )