taut

comparative tauter · superlative tautest

1. Of a body, muscle, etc., not flabby; firm, toned.

   I watched him from the side as he strode along. His walk was quite different; his face too looked tauter.

   2014, Erich Maria Remarque, translated by Michael Hofmann, The Promised Land: Translated from the German, London: Vintage Books, →ISBN, page 285

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   In a sense, Michelangelo's David is everything his Bacchus was not: firmly in control of himself while the god of wine was teetering on the brink of dissolution; his senses heightened while Bacchus's are dulled. Where one is taut, the other is flaccid. David's toned, athletic body contrasts with Bacchus's effeminate form, illustrating the dichotomy in Michelangelo's mind between the active masculine force and the passive feminine.

   2014 July, Miles J. Unger, “The Giant”, in Michelangelo: A Life in Six Masterpieces, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 108

   The silky sarong fell away, pooling around her hips with a whisper. Her nipples were pink and taut, the rest of her naked body a soft glow as moonlight flowed through the living room.

   2015, Lindsay McKenna, “[Hidden Heart] Chapter 7”, in Lindsay McKenna, Merline Lovelace, edited by Patience Bloom, Course of Action: Crossfire (Harlequin Romantic Suspense; 1853), Don Mills, Ont.: Harlequin Books, →ISBN, page 111

2. Of a person, having a lean, strong body.
3. Of music, writing, etc., containing only relevant parts; brief and controlled.

   Quick action and dialogue create a taut story, although it is illustration that shapes the characters.

   1997, “Minty: A Story of a Young Harriet Tubman (written by Alan Schroeder, 1996) [book review]”, in Linda R. Andres, editor, Children’s Literature Review, volume 43, Detroit, Mich.: Gale Research, →ISBN, page 174, column 2; quoted in Milton C. Sernett, “‘Minty’”, in Harriet Tubman: Myth, Memory and History, Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2007, →ISBN, page 35

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   If he curbs his swing a little and gets something crisper and tauter in his methods he may yet be very good.

   1921 March 19, Bernard Darwin, “Golf on the Forest”, in Peter Anderson Graham, editor, Country Life, volume XLIX, number 1263, London: George Newnes […], →OCLC, page 321, column 2

   The superbly crafted suspense thriller that director Jonathan Demme has made from Thomas Harris's taut best-selling novel The Silence of the Lambs slams you like a sudden blast of bone-chilling, pulse-pounding terror.

   1991 February 14, Peter Travers, “The Silence of the Lambs [film review]”, in Rolling Stone, New York, N.Y.: Wenner Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 05 Dec 2017

   Guitarist Jade Puget and vocalist Davey Havok have distilled AFI's strengths (a ferocious, post-hardcore rhythmic backbone; goth-tinctured, post-punky guitars; and Havok's desperate, dramatic croon) into 14 taut, hook-driven songs.

   2017 January 20, Annie Zaleski, “AFI Sounds Refreshed and Rejuvenated on Its 10th Album, AFI (The Blood Album)”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 03 Nov 2019

   Synonyms: concise, crisp, terse, tight, brief, concise, crisp, laconic · Antonyms: circumlocutory, diffuse, periphrastic, palaverous, pleonastic, prolix, rigmarole, sesquipedalian

4. figurativelyUnder tension, like a stretched bowstring, rope, or sail; tight.

   The cord goes taut, tauter, tautest, till down she trips and Adam has a good laugh.

   1971, Yoram Kaniuk, “The Barking”, in [Lazarre] Seymour Simckes, transl., Adam Resurrected: Translated from the Hebrew, New York, N.Y.: Atheneum Books, →OCLC; republished New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, 2008, →ISBN, page 105

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   The pressure pad which holds the film taut as it passes the reproducing light beam must apply just the right amount of pressure.

   1929, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Fundamentals of Sound Recording, page 192

   The hawser was as taut as a bowstring, and the current so strong she pulled upon her anchor. All around the hull, in the blackness, the rippling current bubbled and chattered like a little mountain stream.

   1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Ebb-tide Runs”, in Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC, part V (My Sea Adventure), page 185

   Every piece of binding is first carefully examined and tested; then it is put on, cautiously and accurately. Every turn is hauled taut, taking care that it is in its right place. [...] A sledge journey of the kind we had before us is a serious undertaking, and the work has to be done seriously.

   1912, Roald Amundsen, “The End of the Winter”, in A. G. Chater, transl., The South Pole: An Account of the Norwegian Antarctic Expedition in the “Fram,” 1910–1912 … Translated from the Norwegian … In Two Volumes, volume I, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 350

   After some moments of interchanging messages with the leaders on the platform, during which the suspense in the hall was tremendously taut, the police left saying that the women arrested would have to report themselves at Bow Street the following morning.

   1914, Constance Lytton, Jane Warton [pseudonym; Lady Constance Bulwer-Lytton], “My Conversion”, in Prisons & Prisoners: Some Personal Experiences, London: William Heinemann, →OCLC, page 19

   With an engine of the weight of a Garratt heading a long heavy coal train over such a road great skill in handling was necessary; not only by the enginemen but by the guard; the secret, of course, was to keep the couplings as taut as possible throughout the train to avoid severe "snatches".

   1959 March, “Talking of Trains: The L.M.S. Beyer-Garratts”, in Trains Illustrated, page 122

   Synonyms: nonslack, stretched, tense, tensioned · Antonyms: untaut, free, loose, unfastened, unsecured, unstapled

5. figurativelyExperiencing anxiety or stress.

   His outward appearance was calm, but inside he was very taut.

   1989, Faye Kellerman, The Quality of Mercy, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow and Company, →ISBN

   Synonyms: nonrelaxed, strained, tense, unrelaxed

6. figurativelynauticalOf a sailor, ship, etc., neat and well-disciplined.

   In the tautest schooner that ever swam / He rides at anchor at Anisquam.

   1872, John Greenleaf Whittier, “The Sisters”, in The Pennsylvania Pilgrim, and Other Poems, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co., →OCLC, page 103

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   [O]ur friend was a hearty toper in the days of his Whiggery, but no sooner turned one of the tautest of Tories, than he took to the tea-pot. It seems a thing against nature.

   1832 September, John Wilson, W[illia]m Maginn, J[ohn] G[ibson] Lockhart, James Hogg [et al.], Noctes Ambrosianæ […], volume V, number LXII, New York, N.Y.: Redfield […], published 1854, →OCLC, page 76

   [T]he astonished boy looked round him, and wondered if this could really be the trim, taut ship he had read of. The deck was so encumbered with foul-smelling casks, coils of rope, and masses of rubbish, that there was no room to move; and Jack felt at a loss where to fly to be out of the way of the busy, swearing crew.

   1863, Anne Bowman, “The Adventures of Clever Jack”, in Edmund Routledge, editor, Routledge’s Every Boy’s Annual. An Original Miscellany of Entertaining Literature, London; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, Warne, & Routledge, […], →OCLC, chapter I (Jack Determines to be His Own Master), page 109

   You've secured the neatest, trimmest, tautest little craft that ever man could wish to be commander of.

   1878, Arthur Hamilton, chapter XXI, in Lawrence Loftewalde. A Tale. … In Three Volumes, volume III, London: Samuel Tinsley & Co., […], →OCLC, page 271

   George Szell took up the reins of the Cleveland Orchestra in 1946, and made it one of the world's tautest, most disciplined ensembles, ideal in the classical and early romantic repertory.

   2004, Allan Kozinn, “Béla Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra; Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta, and Hungarian Sketches: Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Fritz Reiner, Conducting […]”, in Classical Music: A Critic’s Guide to the 100 Most Important Recordings (The New York Times Essential Library), New York, N.Y.: Times Books; Henry Holt and Company, →ISBN, page 259

   1. broadlyfigurativelynauticalEfficient and in order.
7. beveragesStrong; uncompromising.

   Yet the 2016 Éxilé rosé from Lise et Bertrand Jousset in the Loire Valley, made mostly of gamay, was yeasty let light and lithe, while the 2016 Indigeno from Ancarani in Emilia-Romagna, made of trebbiano, was taut and earthy.

   2018 March 8, Eric Asimov, “Bubbles, with joy: Pétillant Naturel’s triumphant return”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 13 Nov 2019

present singular third person tauts · participle present tauting · participle past tauted · past tauted

1. transitiveTo make taut; to tauten, to tighten.

   Men come down to the bare nail / suffer or inflict pain // life demands degradation / tauts the thread that hangs us all: [...]

   2010, Gary Allen, “Piggyback”, in The Next Room, Belfast: Lapwing Publications, →ISBN, page 16

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   The machine is operated by a double friction drum hoist. From the rear drum a steel cable, called the tension cable, leads to a set of fall blocks attached to the mast pole. These blocks afford a means for slackening and tauting the track cable, one end of which is supported by the fall blocks and the other fastened to a "dead man" or other suitable anchorage planted in the bank of the pit opposite the dumping point.

   1917 August, The Road-maker, volume 2, number 5, Port Huron, Mich.: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 18, column 2

   The cold wind blew in again through the front door, and with a desperate, frantic energy Evelyn stretched both her arms around the bowl. She must be quick—she must be strong. She tightened her arms until they ached, tauted the thin strips of muscle under her soft flesh, and with a mighty effort raised it and held it.

   1920 May, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, “The Cut-Glass Bowl”, in Flappers and Philosophers, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, part IV, page 153

   The global penetration is measured with a potentiometric displacement sensor connected to an impeller. A thin steel cable is fastened with a spring to the vibrator and runs over the rim of the impeller. On the other side, a counterweight of 0.4 kg tauts the cable, [...].

   2016, J. Vogelsang, G. Huber, T[heodoros] Triantafyllidis, T. Bender, “Interpretation of Vibratory Pile Penetration Based on Digital Image Correlation”, in Theodoros Triantafyllidis, editor, Holistic Simulation of Geotechnical Installation Processes: Benchmarks and Simulations (Lecture Notes in Applied and Computational Mechanics; 80), Cham, Switzerland; Heidelberg: Springer International Publishing, →DOI, →ISBN, →ISSN, section 2.3 (Instrumentation and Data Acquisition), pages 35–36