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taut

adj
/tɔːt/UK/toːt/

Etymology

The adjective is derived from Middle English taught [and other forms], Early Middle English tohte, towehte (“strained, stretched; distended; tight; firm”), probably from tough, touth, touʒth, toʒt (“powerful, strong; fierce, violent; not tender, tough; hardy, resilient; steadfast, stout; difficult to do or endure”) and possibly influenced by togen, towen, past participle of ten (“to extend, stretch out; to drag, haul, pull, tow, tug”) (modern English tee (“(obsolete) to draw, lead; to draw away; to go, proceed”)), or directly from its etymon Old English tēon (“to drag, draw, pull”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dewk- (“to draw, pull”)) The word may be related to thight (“(dialectal) compact, dense; close-fitting, tight”) and tight; and is cognate with Scots tacht, taght (“taut”). The verb is probably derived from the adjective.

  1. derived from *dewk-✻ — “to draw, pull”
  2. inherited from tēon — “to drag, draw, pull”
  3. inherited from tohte
  4. inherited from taught

Definitions

  1. Under tension, like a stretched bowstring, rope, or sail

    Under tension, like a stretched bowstring, rope, or sail; tight.

    • The hawser was as taut as a bowstring, and the current so strong she pulled upon her anchor. All around the hull, in the blackness, the rippling current bubbled and chattered like a little mountain stream.

  2. Not flabby

    Not flabby; firm, toned; (of a person) having a lean, strong body.

    • I watched him from the side as he strode along. His walk was quite different; his face too looked tauter.
    • The silky sarong fell away, pooling around her hips with a whisper. Her nipples were pink and taut, the rest of her naked body a soft glow as moonlight flowed through the living room.

  3. Containing only relevant parts

    Containing only relevant parts; brief and controlled.

    • If he curbs his swing a little and gets something crisper and tauter in his methods he may yet be very good.
    • The superbly crafted suspense thriller that director Jonathan Demme has made from Thomas Harris's taut best-selling novel The Silence of the Lambs slams you like a sudden blast of bone-chilling, pulse-pounding terror.
    • Quick action and dialogue create a taut story, although it is illustration that shapes the characters.
  4. ›+ 4 more definitions

    1. Experiencing anxiety or stress.

      • His outward appearance was calm, but inside he was very taut.

    2. Neat and well-disciplined

      Neat and well-disciplined; (by extension) efficient and in order.

      • [O]ur friend was a hearty toper in the days of his Whiggery, but no sooner turned one of the tautest of Tories, than he took to the tea-pot. It seems a thing against nature.
      • In the tautest schooner that ever swam / He rides at anchor at Anisquam.

    3. Strong

      Strong; uncompromising.

      • Yet the 2016 Éxilé rosé from Lise et Bertrand Jousset in the Loire Valley, made mostly of gamay, was yeasty let light and lithe, while the 2016 Indigeno from Ancarani in Emilia-Romagna, made of trebbiano, was taut and earthy.

    4. To make taut

      To make taut; to tauten, to tighten.

      • Men come down to the bare nail / suffer or inflict pain // life demands degradation / tauts the thread that hangs us all: [...]

The neighborhood

Derived

run a taut ship, tauten, taut hand, taut-line hitch, tautly, tautness

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at taut. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01taut02sail03attached04fond05indulgent06lenient07lax

A definitional loop anchored at taut. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

7 hops · closes at taut

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA