belt-tighten

verb

To tighten one's belt.

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Meanings

verbbelt-tighten (third-person singular simple present belt-tightens, present participle belt-tightening, simple past and past participle belt-tightened)

present singular third person belt-tightens · participle present belt-tightening · participle past belt-tightened · past belt-tightened

  1. figurativelyintransitiveTo tighten one's belt.

    They light some kind of flame in viewers who don’t have lots of attractive relatives and would enjoy learning that love matters more than money, even if it means your kids may have to go to a state school and you may have to belt-tighten down to one house instead of two.

    2016 March 27, Janet Maslin, “Review: In ‘The Nest,’ a Family Pot to Split Sets Sibling Relations to a Slow Boil”, in The New York Times

Origin

Back-formation from belt-tightening, from tighten one's belt.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

belt-tighten. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/belt-tighten

MLA

“belt-tighten.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/belt-tighten. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “belt-tighten,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/belt-tighten.

Source: belt-tighten on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.