Word.ws English Dictionary

taut hands

taut hands is the plural of taut hand.

Meaning of taut hand

Noun

taut hand (plural taut hands)

  1. (dated) An officer who is severe in discipline.
    • "[…]I'm no Tartar nor a slavedriver. But I am a taut hand, and a taut ship where every man jack works clearly for me, our ship, his mates, and our Fleet is a happy ship.[…]"1993, Dewey Lambdin, The Gun Ketch
  2. (dated) Strict discipline.
    • "Twas the first time I did that part of the duty in command, and I felt, in the circumstances, I was in for carrying it out with a taut hand."1879, George Cupples, The Green Hand: Adventures of a Naval Lieutenant

Questions about taut hands

What is taut hands the plural of?
Taut hands is the plural of taut hand.

Words near taut hands in the dictionary

  1. Taussig-Bing syndrome
  2. Tausug
  3. Tausugs
  4. taut
  5. taut hand
  6. taut hands
  7. taut-
  8. taut-line hitch
  9. taut-line hitches
  10. tautaug
  11. tautaugs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: taut hands (page history and authors); taut hand (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.

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