sense

sense / sens/ • n. 1. a faculty by which the body perceives an external stimulus; one of the faculties of sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch: the bear has a keen sense of smell that enables it to hunt at dusk. 2. a feeling that something is the case: she had the sense of being a political outsider. ∎  an awareness or feeling that one is in a specified state: you can improve your general health and sense of well-being. ∎  (sense of) a keen intuitive awareness of or sensitivity to the presence or importance of something: she had a fine sense of comic timing. 3. a sane and realistic attitude to situations and problems: he earned respect by the good sense he showed at meetings. ∎  a reasonable or comprehensible rationale: I can't see the sense in leaving all the work to you. 4. a way in which an expression or a situation can be interpreted; a meaning: it is not clear which sense of the word “characters” is intended in this passage. 5. chiefly Math. Physics a property, e.g., direction of motion, distinguishing a pair of objects, quantities, effects, etc., that differ only in that each is the reverse of the other. ∎  [as adj.] Genetics relating to or denoting a coding sequence of nucleotides, complementary to an antisense sequence. • v. [tr.] perceive by a sense or senses: with the first frost, they could sense a change in the days. ∎  be aware of: she could sense her father's anger rising. ∎  be aware that something is the case without being able to define exactly how one knows: he could sense that he wasn't liked. ∎  (of a machine or similar device) detect: an optical fiber senses a current flowing in a conductor. PHRASES: bring someone to their (or come to one's) senses restore someone to (or regain) consciousness. ∎  cause someone to (or start to) think and behave reasonably after a period of folly or irrationality. in a (or one) sense used to indicate a particular interpretation of a statement or situation: in a sense, behavior cannot develop independently of the environment. in one's senses fully aware and in control of one's thoughts and words; sane: would any man in his senses invent so absurd a story? make sense be intelligible, justifiable, or practicable. make sense of find meaning or coherence in: she must try to make sense of what was going on. out of one's senses in or into a state of insanity. a sense of direction a person's ability to know without explicit guidance the direction in which they are or should be moving. take leave of one's senses (in hyperbolic use) go insane.