Taut

Adjective

 * 1) Tight; under tension, as in a rope or bow string.
 * 2) * 1883: Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island
 * The hawser was as taut as a bowstring - so strong she pulled upon her anchor.
 * 1) Experiencing stress or anxiety.
 * 2) * 1989 Faye Kellerman, The Quality of Mercy
 * His outward appearance was calm, but inside he was very taut.
 * 1) Containing only relevant parts, brief and controlled.
 * 2) * 2007 Milton C. Sernett, Harriet Tubman: Myth, Memory and History
 * Quick action and dialogue create a taut story, although it is illustration that shapes the characters.

Adverbs for Taut
curiously; nervously; dangerously; solidly; securely; sufficiently; perilously; finally; completely; lamentably; deplorably; inconveniently; rigidly; strangely; unaccountably

Thesaurus
all ataunto, anxious, apprehensive, ataunt, bungup and bilge-free, close, dragged out, drawn, drawn out, elongated, extended, firm, in suspense, in trim, keyed-up, lengthened, neat, on edge, on tenterhooks, on tiptoe, orderly, pokerlike, prolongated, prolonged, protracted, pulled, quivering, ramrodlike, renitent, rigid, rodlike, shipshape, smart, spruce, spun out, starched, starchy, stiff, stiff as buckram, straggling, strained, stretched, stretched out, stretched tight, strung out, tense, tidy, tight, trig, trim, under a strain, unrelaxed, uptight, virgate, with bated breath, with muscles tense

Etymology
From, past participle of tow:

Translations

 * Armenian:
 * Czech:
 * Finnish:, ,
 * French: ,
 * Hungarian: feszes
 * Norwegian:


 * Polish: ,
 * Russian: ,
 * Scottish Gaelic:
 * Serbo-Croatian: napet, napregnut
 * Swedish: spänd, sträckt


 * Czech:
 * French:, ,
 * German:


 * Hungarian: feszült
 * Norwegian: anspent, anstrengt
 * Serbo-Croatian: napet


 * Czech:


 * Norwegian: fortettet

Derived terms

 * tauten
 * tautly
 * tautness

Synonyms
tense