Whiff from tense people (5)
I believe the answer is:
trace
'whiff' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'tense people' is the wordplay.
'tense' becomes 't' (abbreviation used in many dictionaries).
'people' becomes 'race' (**).
't'+'race'='TRACE'
'from' is the link.
(Other definitions for trace that I've seen before include "Track down or make copy" , "suspicion" , "part of harness" , "Seek out" , "Copy by drawing on translucent paper" .)