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.

Common collocations

• tight pants Adjective + noun
• tight control Adjective + noun
• tight hold Adjective + noun
• tight security Adjective + noun

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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