adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
an intense gaze (=when someone looks at someone or something with concentration)
▪ His intense gaze never left Delaney.
close/intense scrutiny (=very careful scrutiny)
▪ Both these areas of law have come under close scrutiny by the courts.
enormous/intense interest (=very great)
▪ This tournament has created enormous interest.
fierce/intense loyalty
▪ She was touched by her friend's fierce loyalty.
fierce/intense/stiff opposition (=strong opposition)
▪ It is certain that there will be fierce opposition to the changes.
great/intense curiosity
▪ His disappearance had obviously aroused great curiosity.
intense concentration (=very great concentration)
▪ The job demands intense concentration.
intense debate (=in which people put forward strong and different arguments)
▪ The future of the nuclear industry has been a matter of intense debate.
intense excitement (=a very strong feeling of excitement)
▪ I can still remember the intense excitement of going to see my first football match.
intense rivalry
▪ There has always been intense rivalry between New Zealand and Australia.
intense speculation
▪ The reason for his resignation was the subject of intense speculation.
intense (=done with a lot of effort)
▪ The agreement came after months of intense negotiations.
intense/acute/violent etc dislike (=very strong dislike)
▪ His colleagues regarded him with intense dislike.
intense/severe nausea
▪ The woman suffered from severe nausea and vomiting.
passionate/intense/deep/bitter hatred (=hatred that is felt very strongly)
▪ What, I wondered, had I done to provoke such deep hatred?
severe/intense
▪ Ever since the accident, Mike’s suffered from severe back pain.
stiff//tough/fierce/intense/keen competition (=strong competition)
▪ There is stiff competition for places at the best universities.
strong/intense pressure
▪ There was strong pressure for a statement from the President.
strong/intense
▪ There was a strong feeling of anger among the workers.
strong/intense
▪ Issues such as abortion arouse strong emotions.
▪ The emotion was so intense that she spent most of the movie in tears.
the intense/extreme heat
▪ She was in need of a cooling drink in the intense heat.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
as
▪ He replies: It's as intense as you want it to be.
▪ While former executives say the rivalries remained as intense as ever, some joint programs were put in place.
▪ The excitement of a group of horses galloping together with hounds at heel would be just as intense.
▪ They are as intense a documentation of passion as I have ever seen in my life.
▪ The internecine struggles over budgeting between the services is as intense as the battles between defence and social welfare programmes.
less
▪ There is a tendency for illnesses to become more prolonged, less intense and for the recovery to be slower.
▪ Lockhart said preparation for the debate will be less intense than it was for the candidates' first meeting.
▪ A floodlight will give a wider, less intense, cone-shaped light.
▪ But it should be noted that the more successful these bands became, the more mellow and less intense their music got.
▪ They can be more or less intense.
▪ Identification includes much less intense and less exclusive attitudes.
▪ Real love is calmer and less intense and more universal.
▪ Staining was optimal after 18-24 hours of fixation, but less intense after more than 48 hours of fixation.
more
▪ The was particularly marked among former scheme port operators, where 67 percent reported more intense competition.
▪ In the two decades since, those negative feelings have grown even more intense and widespread.
▪ But the sun has now become more intense.
▪ This is far more intense a challenge than contributing to debates about strategy and design.
▪ The emotion felt, although heavily qualified, can be equally or even more intense, as for all second-order experiencing.
▪ But does this necessarily imply more intense faith?
▪ Everything was more intense, not just his emotions.
▪ Dawson had been nursing a grudge even more intense than that of the others.
most
▪ Light is most intense along the central axis of each fan.
▪ Often we produce just the opposite, because the affluent become the most intense users of the service.
▪ Perhaps armies are the most intense evocation of this state of mind.
▪ Traditional psychodynamic individual work is perhaps the most intense way to excise emotional malignancies that are getting in your way at work.
▪ But not even Barnes could break down a Springbok side able to absorb the most intense pressure and punish every error.
▪ As Reed suggests, the noisiest, most intense minorities can become a sort of visible public opinion.
▪ Perhaps the most intense of my health service battles of the mid-1980s was over the selected list of drugs.
▪ White said this has been his most intense camp, and that there are fewer worries entering the season.
particularly
▪ As spawning time approaches, the need for species identification becomes particularly intense.
▪ Nor did he invent that particularly intense expression of yearning called speaking in tongues.
▪ But at the present time the pressures seem to be particularly intense.
▪ The field at these sites is particularly intense, as if the magnetic flux lines have been tied into tight bundles.
▪ Closed systems are a particularly intense variety of coevolution.
▪ Competition is particularly intense where supply and demand are quite unequal.
▪ Not surprisingly this retentiveness suggests a further conclusion-that the Dubya campaign really is driven by a particularly intense dynastic dynamic.
▪ Migraines are a particularly intense kind of vascular headache.
so
▪ The pain in the region of her heart was so intense that she wrapped her arms around herself involuntarily.
▪ I think he was so intense because he was the only black platoon leader in our battalion.
▪ It was so intense and we were both so strung up, uneasy about it.
▪ Many said demand was so intense that they could find no stocks to buy.
▪ No one could find out why this apparently healthy young woman suffered symptoms which were so intense and yet so varied.
▪ He was so intense he could be intimidating at first.
▪ An endless falling through time and space, and ecstasy so intense that she thought she would die.
▪ And the engine heat was so intense we had to change the oil constantly, arid replace blown-out gaskets.
too
▪ Evening is a good time for friendships and romance, but do not be too intense.
▪ She was too intense, he said.
▪ Some found the conflict too intense and retired back to the closet, perhaps for ever.
▪ Everything was too crazy, too intense.
▪ I think her face is too intense for some one of her age.
▪ It was too intense a time.
▪ The plays they put on present stereotypes and are too intense.
very
▪ He's still very intense about the art, still loves his cricket with a passion.
▪ It can become very intense when we visit actual caves.
▪ Barnes is a very intense young man, in spite of his cheeky-chappy outward look.
▪ There are a lot of feelings you go through that are very intense.
▪ It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say I lived for that owl during that very intense period of training.
▪ He was very intense and very quiet at that time.
▪ The human relationships are very intense and therefore the learning curve is accelerated.
▪ And when the lights go on, McCoy is a very intense player.
■ NOUN
activity
▪ During the late 1970s the Sun went through a period of intense activity on its surface.
▪ The boundaries of these plates are zones of intense activity.
▪ There are, however, often specific periods of, usually, intense activity, followed by periods of inactivity.
▪ A letdown was to be expected after the intense activities of high holy days.
competition
▪ The was particularly marked among former scheme port operators, where 67 percent reported more intense competition.
▪ Of course, there is intense competition among the London brokerage houses to signal their bids as fast as possible.
▪ Obviously there is intense competition from banks and building societies. 5.
▪ Adequate though not ideal for earlier times, they are thoroughly unsatisfactory in an era of intense competition.
▪ In reality, the females are locked in fierce and intense competition.
▪ To listen to Paul you would think there was an intense competition for class speaking time.
▪ Between 200 and 300 new commercial stations could come on air in the 1990s and intense competition for advertising revenue is inevitable.
▪ There was intense competition among companies to travel with Brown on his overseas trips, which frequently generated major deals.
concentration
▪ Since her words didn't appear to be an invitation to food, he returned his intense concentration to the man.
▪ Steam-power meant a new and intense concentration of large-scale industry and of the labour force to man it.
▪ He had a look of intense concentration for several seconds.
▪ The alert, attentive mind, the intense concentration needed, is very demanding.
debate
▪ The Thatcher government's policy, effected in the Broadcasting Act of 1990, provoked intense debate.
▪ His approach has incited even more intense debate among Democrats.
▪ These have been the subject of intense debate, with religious preferences sometimes intruding.
▪ Yellowstone was threatened in 1883-4 by a plan to allow mining, but the park was saved after an intense debate.
▪ The implications of this change have been the subject of intense debate since 1978.
dislike
▪ Second, he shows an intense dislike of his new position, and a continuing desire to resign.
heat
▪ Three police officers who tried to save the children were beaten back by the intense heat and smoke.
▪ Only exceptionally cloudy, boggy areas might survive the intense heat radiation from the reentering debris.
▪ One of the friends, Manuel Cabrera, said he tried to grab Jamie but the intense heat drove him out.
▪ All the surrounding countryside, scorched by the intense heat, is now in flames.
▪ Conditions have been made worse by intense heat and the continuing drought.
▪ Every tree was scorched or charred by a brief exposure to extremely intense heat.
▪ Over the next four months, the weather veered from intense heat to snowstorms.
▪ All archaebacteria thrive in intense heat, and most derive their energy from breaking chemical bonds.
interest
▪ Most of the men preferred to avoid her glance, either gazing round the room or studying their shoes with intense interest.
▪ The scarcity of housing here is mostly the result of the intense interest and enormous purchasing power of international buyers.
▪ A new, exclusive product has shaken the climbing world and is attracting intense interest.
▪ Few singers command such intense interest.
▪ Both the council and the police were aware of the intense interest in the case.
▪ In October, Castro visited New York and received intense interest from the media and the business community.
▪ But such intense interest can work to the carer's advantage too.
▪ They all expected each member of the staff to express - discreetly - particular and intense interest in their child.
opposition
▪ This provoked intense opposition, not least from her own family, in a militantly Hindu city like Kumbbakoman.
▪ Still the plan met intense opposition.
▪ Even in its planning stages there was intense opposition to the series.
pain
▪ Or when George's toe struck a stone, giving him intense pain which he could hardly contain soundlessly.
▪ The minute the sour flavor exploded in his mouth, slivers of intense pain filled his head.
▪ Epicurus had a mundane philosophy yet despite suffering intense pain of the intestines, he enjoyed a blissful last day on earth.
▪ A great longing to see his father's face had swept over him, filling him with a sudden, intense pain.
▪ The tissue contains soluble proteins that cause intense pain and swelling, but which are rarely lethal to man.
▪ What she has known most intimately these last years has been intense pain.
▪ He'd suffered intense pain before his death.
pressure
▪ But not even Barnes could break down a Springbok side able to absorb the most intense pressure and punish every error.
▪ Despite intense pressure and great temptation, they entered no wars.
▪ Fleischmann and Pons believed that they had stumbled on another way - intense pressures provided by the natural make-up of solid palladium.
▪ Rovers began to tire under intense pressure from the St Helens pack.
▪ The Army and the police remained under intense pressure in the Jaffna peninsula where many camps and stations were under siege.
▪ Following the disappointing returns in the World Cup, Richardson and his players had been under intense pressure.
▪ Inside the embassy, conditions were said to be worse that ever, with intense pressure on sanitary facilities.
▪ Reading cracked under intense pressure again after 69 minutes.
rivalry
▪ The County Championship was a big meeting in those days, with intense rivalry between west and north London.
▪ An intense rivalry was to be renewed between Carl Lewis and Ben Johnson in the short sprint.
scrutiny
▪ Far from privileging authorial discourse, such writing submits the figure of the author and his/her subjectivity to intense scrutiny.
▪ Ventresca was under intense scrutiny regarding his qualifications for the job.
▪ His intense scrutiny took in the shadowy and empty lengths of the corridor.
▪ It's been a tough and bruising campaign, with the backgrounds of both candidates coming under intense scrutiny.
▪ Mr Barry has been under intense scrutiny ever since.
▪ All forms of regulation have come under intense scrutiny in recent years.
▪ Without being aware of it she sighed, and became the subject of Niall's intense scrutiny.
speculation
▪ The reasoning behind the unpopular and disastrous resignation immediately became the subject of intense speculation.
▪ How much money Simpson has is a matter of intense speculation and debate.
▪ Outside Whitehall there was now intense speculation about what was to happen.
▪ The brewing group has been the subject of intense speculation for decades.
▪ Yet it is worth remembering that they were fuelled by intense speculation about her marriage.
▪ The commencement of the trial ended a period of intense speculation that Barry would reach a plea bargain with the federal authorities.
▪ Against her will Polly had found herself curious about the subject of such intense speculation.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ an intense conversation
▪ As we waited for the winner to be announced, the excitement was intense.
▪ Every car was stopped and searched, which caused intense annoyance to the drivers.
▪ He's a little too intense for me.
▪ It would give me intense pleasure to beat him at tennis.
▪ Some of these young people are under intense pressure to succeed.
▪ Very intense exercise may actually be bad for you.