tighten up

present singular third person tightens up · participle present tightening up · participle past tightened up · past tightened up

1. transitiveTo make sufficiently tight.
2. transitiveTo fix something or make it correct.

   As noted in the last chapter, you should tighten up your argument and prose when you revise the first draft for substantive change.

   2012, Stanley Chodorow, Gordon Harvey, Writing a Successful Research Paper, and, Writing with Sources, →ISBN

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   He might do a third cut of silage, or he'd tighten up around the place in preparation for the winter, or he'd be still going off doing blocklaying jobs.

   2013, Donal Ryan, The Thing About December, →ISBN

3. intransitiveTo become tense and restrained.

   He could feel himself tighten up as he prepared himself to ask her.

   2008, William Moran, Alj, →ISBN, page 104

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   You must follow every change because every change affects your play. If another player loses a big pot, you must ask yourself how this will affect his play. Will he go on tilt? Will he tighten up?

   2006, David Apostolico, Lessons From The Pro Poker Tour, →ISBN

4. intransitivetransitiveTo become, or make, more stringent and ungenerous.

   The church was tighening up on matters sexual. Until the middle of the tenth century it had been quite routine for priests to be married.

   1999, Robert Lacey, Danny Danziger, The Year 1000: What life was like at the turn of The First Millennium, London: Abacus, published 2000, page 169

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   In May 1973 Honecker made another speech to the SED Central Committee, in which he appeared to want to tighten up the rules, as if his remarks in 1971 had been interpreted too liberally, but the VIIth Writers' Congress in November of the same year confirmed the relative freedom of the previous two years.

   1997, Pól Ó Dochartaigh, The Portrayal of Jews in GDR Prose Fiction, →ISBN, page 153

   Or perhaps states were beginning to appreciate how ironic welfare reform really is. With the Supreme Court invalidating lower benefits for newcomers, states may now have even greater incentives to tighten up and make welfare less attractive.

   2000, Sanford F. Schram, After Welfare: The Culture of Postindustrial Social Policy, →ISBN, page 105

5. intransitiveTo become focused and serious; to stop any vacillation or inconsistency.

   You need to tighten up and stop being so fuckin' emotional for one in your life.

   2012 -, Mychea, He Loves Me, He Loves You Not, →ISBN

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   Plainly winter was at hand. "Just as well we started when we did," said Bill. "No tellin' when she'll tighten up." "May do it any time," Sam agreed.

   1922, A. M. Chisholm, A Thousand a Plate