Being old, I tense up around front of cemetery (9)
I believe the answer is:
existence
'being' is the definition.
(I know that being can be written as existence)
'old i tense up around front of cemetery' is the wordplay.
'old' becomes 'ex' (prefix meaning former or onetime).
'up' is an anagram indicator (letters get chucked up).
'around' indicates putting letters inside.
'front of' says to take the initial letters (the letter at the front of the word).
The initial letter of 'cemetery' is 'c'.
'tense' with letters rearranged gives 'stene'.
'stene' placed around 'c' is 'stence'.
'ex'+'i'+'stence'='EXISTENCE'
(Other definitions for existence that I've seen before include "A way of living" , "survival" , "Way of life" , "State of being" , "The business of being" .)