Meanings
nountight ship (plural tight ships)
plural tight ships
- idiomaticA well-organized and highly disciplined organization.
to run a tight ship
2 more examples
You're new here, so let me lay it down for you. I run a pretty tight ship around here. That's why the students call me "the hammer".
1999, Strangers with Candy (television production), spoken by Chuck Noblet (Stephen Colbert)I know your agent’s third cousin really wanted to hear their name, but the Oscar show producers run a tight ship, yes-sir-Bob.
2015 February 23, “Oscars 2015: 10 things we learned”, in The Guardian (London)
Translations
Finnish tiukka kuri
- tiukka kurihighly disciplined organization
German strenges Regiment
- strenges Regimenthighly disciplined organization
Italian pieno regime
- pieno regimehighly disciplined organization
Polish żelazna ręka
- żelazna rękahighly disciplined organization
Swedish strikt regemente
- strikt regementehighly disciplined organization
Cite this entry
APA
tight ship. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tight%20ship
MLA
“tight ship.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tight%20ship. Accessed November 4, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “tight ship,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tight%20ship.
Source: tight ship on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.