verb ~ (sth) (up)
1 to become or make sth become tight or tighter:
[V] The rope holding the boat suddenly tightened and broke. * His mouth tightened into a thin line. * [VN] to tighten a lid / screw / rope / knot * The nuts weren't properly tightened and the wheel came off. * She tightened her grip on his arm. * The brake cable needs tightening up.
2 [VN] to make sth become stricter:
to tighten security / regulations / rules * The government is to tighten controls on the sale of alcohol.
OPPLOOSEN
IDIOMS
tighten your belt to spend less money because there is less available:
With price increases on most goods, everyone is having to tighten their belt. * There is a need for further belt-tightening.
PHRASALVERBS
tighten up (on sth) to become stricter or more careful:
Laws on gambling have tightened up recently. * The police are tightening up on under-age drinking.
Rate this entry
About this entry
This is a English–English dictionary entry.
Sourced from Main Dictionary in Lughet's collection.
This word also appears under other sources in Lughet's collection — see the list below.
This entry for tighten is sourced from Main Dictionary, one of the dictionaries and corpora merged into Lughet.
Does tighten appear elsewhere on Lughet?
Yes — tighten appears under other sources or language pairs in Lughet's collection. See the list below.
What is Lughet?
Lughet is a free trilingual dictionary covering nearly five million entries across Uyghur, Chinese, and English, drawn from more than ten source dictionaries and corpora.
