Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive & intransitive verb To make or become tight or tighter.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To make tight; draw tighter; straiten; make more close in any manner; constrict.
  • To become tight; be drawn tighter.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To draw tighter; to straiten; to make more close in any manner.
  • transitive verb (Mach.) a pulley which rests, or is forced, against a driving belt to tighten it.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To make tighter.
  • verb intransitive To become tighter.
  • verb economics To make money harder to borrow or obtain.
  • verb economics To raise short-term interest rates.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb restrict
  • verb narrow or limit
  • verb become tight or tighter
  • verb make tight or tighter

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old English tyhtan.

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