Printer Friendly
Dictionary, Encyclopedia and Thesaurus - The Free Dictionary
3,900,660,234 visitors served.
forum Join the Word of the Day Mailing List For webmasters
?
Dictionary/
thesaurus
Medical
dictionary
Legal
dictionary
Financial
dictionary
Acronyms
 
Idioms
Encyclopedia
Wikipedia
encyclopedia
?

tighten up

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Wikipedia 0.01 sec.
tighten something up
to make something tighter. Tighten your seat belt up. It looks loose. Can you tighten up all the bolts?
See also: tighten, up

tighten up 

1. Lit. [for something] to get tighter. The door hinges began to tighten up, making the door hard to open and close. His grip around the handle tightened up and he refused to let go.
2. Fig. [for someone or a group] to become miserly. The government tightened up and our budget was slashed. We almost went out of business when we couldn't get credit because the bank tightened up.
3. Fig. [for someone or something] to become more restrictive. The boss is tightening up on new hiring. There are more rules and the people who enforce them are tightening up.
See also: tighten, up


Want to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us, add a link to this page, add the site to iGoogle, or visit the webmaster's page for free fun content.
?Page tools
Printer friendly
Cite / link
Feedback
References in periodicals archive?   Idioms browser?   Full browser?
Dean Keates and Martin Butler, with their 10th and 12th goals of the season respectively, ensured a happy ending but Money knows his team must tighten up again over the last six games.
Thomas admits his team have struggled to fire over the past few weeks but injuries forced him to field makeshift line-ups with the back division suffering most and he expects the recruitment of Butler to tighten up a few deficiences.
 
 
 
Idioms and phrases
?

Terms of Use | Privacy policy | Feedback | Advertise with Us | Copyright © 2012 Farlex, Inc.
Disclaimer
All content on this website, including dictionary, thesaurus, literature, geography, and other reference data is for informational purposes only. This information should not be considered complete, up to date, and is not intended to be used in place of a visit, consultation, or advice of a legal, medical, or any other professional.