tight

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Fitting your body very closely.

   These jeans are too tight around the waist.

2. 2
   adj

   Firmly fixed or fastened so it is hard to move or undo.

   The lid was so tight that I couldn't open the jar.

3. 3
   adj

   Packed closely together with little space.

   The tourists stood in a tight little group on the platform.

4. 4
   adj

   Limited and difficult, especially with money or time.

   Money was tight, so they couldn't afford a holiday.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

In early medieval times, tight could mean “healthy” or “vigorous.” Its familiar senses developed later, with the informal meanings “stingy” and “drunk” appearing in the early to mid-19th century. Tights began as tight-fitting breeches worn by men in the 18th and early 19th centuries.

From Middle English tight, tyght, tyȝt, tiht, variants of thight, thiht, from Old English *þiht, *þīht (attested in meteþiht), from Proto-West Germanic *þį̄ht(ī), from Proto-Germanic *þinhtaz, from Proto-Indo-European *tenkt- (“dense, thick, tight”), from Proto-Indo-European *ten- (“to stretch, pull”). Cognate with Scots ticht, West Frisian ticht, Danish tæt, Icelandic þéttur (“dense”), Norwegian tett, Swedish tät, Dutch dicht (“dense”), German dicht (“dense”). The current form with t- /t/ rather than etymologically-expected th- /θ/ arose in Middle English under the influence of the etymologic…

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External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary