tighten

CEFRB1

/ˈtaɪ.tən/

verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    verb

    To make something tighter or more firmly fixed.

  2. 02

    verb

    Extra detail

    To become tighter.

Examples

  • Small businesses will have to tighten their belts to survive.

  • To make our house payments, we're going to have to tighten our belts.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
1
Synonyms
5

Also pronounced

  • [ˈtʰaɪ̯tn̩]
  • [ˈtʰaɪ̯ʔn̩]

Deep Dive

verb

Extra meanings

  1. To make money harder to borrow or obtain.

  2. To make tighter.

  3. To raise short-term interest rates.

More examples

In context

  • Tighten the strap around the suitcase.

  • If the government doesn't tighten the money supply, inflation is certain to be harsh.

  • That joint is tightening as the wood dries.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

You need to blank the screws to secure the shelf.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

verb

Synchronically equivalent to tight + -en, but actually derived from Middle English tighten, from Old English tyhtan, thus originally unrelated to tight (Old English *þiht).