tightened, ppl. a.
(ˈtaɪt(ə)nd)
[f. prec. + -ed1.]
Made or become tight; drawn tight or close; tense, stretched; firm, rigid; constricted.
| 1760 Fawkes tr. Anacreon, Ode lix. 7 With tighten'd Rein, I'll urge thee round the dusty Plain. 1810 Scott Lady of L. ii. xxxvi, Malcolm did..bind..His ample plaid in tightened fold. 1833 Coleridge Table-t. 10 Aug., Like a sigh heaved up from the tightened chest of a sick man. 1880 G. Meredith Tragic Com. (1881) 291 The tightened grasp of her hand confessed her understanding of the thing she pressed to hear repeated. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VI. 48 The pulse may be but little changed [in angina], yet it is sometimes tightened. |