taut
/tɔːt/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Australia/toːt/
taut adjective: of a body, muscle, etc., not flabby; firm, toned.
Adjective
taut (comparative tauter, superlative tautest)
- Of a body, muscle, etc., not flabby; firm, toned.
- I watched him from the side as he strode along. His walk was quite different; his face too looked tauter.2014, Erich Maria Remarque, translated by Michael Hofmann, The Promised Land: Translated from the German, London: Vintage Books, →ISBN, page 285
- In a sense, Michelangelo's David is everything his Bacchus was not: firmly in control of himself while the god of wine was teetering on the brink of dissolution; his senses heightened while Bacchus's are dulled. Where one is taut, the other is flaccid. David's toned, athletic body contrasts with...2014 July, Miles J. Unger, “The Giant”, in Michelangelo: A Life in Six Masterpieces, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 108
- Of a person, having a lean, strong body.
- Of music, writing, etc., 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.1921 March 19, Bernard Darwin, “Golf on the Forest”, in Peter Anderson Graham, editor, Country Life, volume XLIX, number 1263, London: George Newnes […], →OCLC, page 321, column 2
- 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.1991 February 14, Peter Travers, “The Silence of the Lambs [film review]”, in Rolling Stone, New York, N.Y.: Wenner Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 05 Dec 2017
- Synonyms:
- concise, crisp, terse, tight, brief, laconic, lapidary, short-winded, succinct, to the point
- Antonyms:
- circumlocutory, diffuse, periphrastic, palaverous, pleonastic, prolix, rigmarole, sesquipedalian, verbose, wordy
- Under tension, like a stretched bowstring, rope, or sail; tight.
- The pressure pad which holds the film taut as it passes the reproducing light beam must apply just the right amount of pressure.1929, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Fundamentals of Sound Recording, page 192
- 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.1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Ebb-tide Runs”, in Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC, part V (My Sea Adventure), page 185
- Experiencing anxiety or stress.
- His outward appearance was calm, but inside he was very taut.1989, Faye Kellerman, The Quality of Mercy, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow and Company, →ISBN
- Synonyms:
- nonrelaxed, strained, tense, unrelaxed
- Of a sailor, ship, etc., neat and well-disciplined.
- [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.1832 September, John Wilson, W[illia]m Maginn, J[ohn] G[ibson] Lockhart, James Hogg [et al.], Noctes Ambrosianæ […], volume V, number LXII, New York, N.Y.: Redfield […], published 1854, →OCLC, page 76
- [T]he astonished boy looked round him, and wondered if this could really be the trim, taut ship he had read of. The deck was so encumbered with foul-smelling casks, coils of rope, and masses of rubbish, that there was no room to move; and Jack felt at a loss where to fly to be out of the way of the...1863, Anne Bowman, “The Adventures of Clever Jack”, in Edmund Routledge, editor, Routledge’s Every Boy’s Annual. An Original Miscellany of Entertaining Literature, London; New York, N.Y.: Routledge...
- 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.2018 March 8, Eric Asimov, “Bubbles, with joy: Pétillant Naturel’s triumphant return”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on...
Verb
taut (third-person singular simple present tauts, present participle tauting, simple past and past participle tauted)
- To make taut; to tauten, to tighten.
- The machine is operated by a double friction drum hoist. From the rear drum a steel cable, called the tension cable, leads to a set of fall blocks attached to the mast pole. These blocks afford a means for slackening and tauting the track cable, one end of which is supported by the fall blocks and...1917 August, The Road-maker, volume 2, number 5, Port Huron, Mich.: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 18, column 2
- The cold wind blew in again through the front door, and with a desperate, frantic energy Evelyn stretched both her arms around the bowl. She must be quick—she must be strong. She tightened her arms until they ached, tauted the thin strips of muscle under her soft flesh, and with a mighty effort...1920 May, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, “The Cut-Glass Bowl”, in Flappers and Philosophers, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, part IV, page 153
taut meaning in Tamil, Marathi, Urdu and Malayalam
taut in Tamil
- இறுகக் கட்டிய, தொய்வற்ற, இறுக்கமான, விறைப்பான, மனதில் விறைப்பான, ஒழுங்கான
taut in Marathi
- taut, tense, tight
- ताठ tāṭh
taut in Urdu
- بےچین, سخت, تنا ہوا
taut in Malayalam
- മുറുക്കിക്കെട്ടിയ, പിരിമുറുക്കമുളള, സുരക്ഷിതമായ
More languagesFewer languages
- taut in Kannada
- ಬಿಗಿಯಾಗಿ ಎಳೆದ, ಕಳವಳಿಸುವ, ಕಳವಳದ, ವ್ಯಾಕುಲತೆಯ
- taut in Vietnamese
- căng thẳng
Examples of taut in a sentence
- Where one is taut, the other is flaccid.2014 July, Miles J. Unger, “The Giant”, in Michelangelo: A Life in Six Masterpieces, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 108:
- Her nipples were pink and taut, the rest of her naked body a soft glow as moonlight flowed through the living room.2015, Lindsay McKenna, “[Hidden Heart] Chapter 7”, in Lindsay McKenna, Merline Lovelace, edited by Patience Bloom, Course of Action...
- Quick action and dialogue create a taut story, although it is illustration that shapes the characters.1997, “Minty: A Story of a Young Harriet Tubman (written by Alan Schroeder, 1996) [book review]”, in Linda R. Andres, editor, Children’s...
- Every turn is hauled taut, taking care that it is in its right place. [...] A sledge journey of the kind we had before us is a serious undertaking, and the work has to be done seriously.1912, Roald Amundsen, “The End of the Winter”, in A. G. Chater, transl., The South Pole: An Account of the Norwegian Antarctic Expedition...
Synonyms of taut
8 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
- circumlocutory
- diffuse
- periphrastic
- palaverous
- pleonastic
- prolix
- rigmarole
- sesquipedalian
- verbose
- wordy
10 more antonymsFewer antonyms
Forms of taut
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | tauter |
| superlative | tautest |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | tauts |
| present participle | tauting |
| past participle | tauted |
| past | tauted |
Origin of taut
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.
Words formed from taut
Phrases with taut
Words that rhyme with taut
Questions about taut
- What does taut mean?
- Taut means of a body, muscle, etc., not flabby; firm, toned.
- What is taut in Tamil?
- Taut in Tamil is இறுகக் கட்டிய, தொய்வற்ற, இறுக்கமான. See Taut meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use taut in a sentence?
- Where one is taut, the other is flaccid.
- What part of speech is taut?
- Taut can be an adjective or a verb.
- How do you pronounce taut?
- Taut is pronounced /tɔːt/ (UK).
Words near taut in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: taut (page history and authors); taut (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ताठ (Marathi) (page history and authors); taut (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); taut (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); taut (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-taut.ogg, En-us-taut.ogg.
Cite this entry: “taut.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/taut. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.