Link Centre Dictionary

tighten

tigh·ten

UK/ˈtaɪ.tən/ US/ˈtʰaɪ̯tn̩/ fairly common

verb

1.

make tight or tighter

  • “Tighten the wire”
Synonyms
2.

become tight or tighter

  • “The rope tightened”
3.

restrict

  • “Tighten the rules”
  • “stiffen the regulations”
Synonyms
4.

narrow or limit

  • “reduce the influx of foreigners”
Synonyms

Origin

Synchronically equivalent to tight + -en, but actually derived from Middle English tighten, from Old English tyhtan, thus originally unrelated to tight (Old English *þiht).

Phrases

  • tighten down
  • tighten one's belt
  • tighten the purse strings
  • tighten up

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.