intense

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”)). Doublet of intent.

adj

1. Of a characteristic: extreme or very high or strong in degree; severe; also, excessive.
   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. 29 June 2013, “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
2. Of a thing: possessing some characteristic to an extreme or very high or strong degree.
3. Of feelings, thoughts, etc.: strongly focused; ardent, deep, earnest, passionate.
   intense study    intense thought
   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. 1886, Annie Besant, Life, Death, and Immortality, London: Freethought Publishing Company,[…], →OCLC, page 3
   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. 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
4. Of a person: very emotional or passionate.
   The artist was a small, intense man with piercing blue eyes.
   Fair Æsthetic (suddenly, and in deepest tones, to Smith, who has just been introduced to take her in to Dinner). "Are you Intense?" 14 June 1879, [George du Maurier], “Refinements of Modern Speech”, in Punch, or The London Charivari, volume LXXVI, London: […] Bradbury, Agnew, & Co.,[…], →OCLC, page 270
5. (also figurative) Under tension; tightly drawn; strained, stressed, tense.