tight-assed
tight-assed adjective: rigidly maintaining self-control; restricting oneself to generally accepted rules and behaviours.
Adjective
tight-assed (comparative more tight-assed, superlative most tight-assed)
- Rigidly maintaining self-control; restricting oneself to generally accepted rules and behaviours.
- Assemblyperson Baker, as she probably liked to be addressed, had all the lyricism and sensuality of Betty Crocker. She was so tight-assed that she even wore stockings in the tropics.1982, Patricia Burstein, chapter 12, in Family Holiday,, New York: William Morrow, page 182
- This noncritical atmosphere works for us because the three of us are so tight assed about revealing our emotions.1991, Douglas Coupland, Generation X, New York: St. Martin's Press, →OCLC, page 14
- Synonyms:
- conservative, conventional, inhibited, repressed, straight-laced, stuffy, uptight
- Antonyms:
- easy-going, laid-back, relaxed
- Excessively concerned with unimportant details; obsessively precise.
- […] Gottlieb obviously wishes, above all else in life, that he could turn himself into that miserable don and learn to write his spiteful-playful tight-assed vinegar prose.1964, Christopher Isherwood, A Single Man, London: Minerva, published 1991, page 62
- It was a typical old brownstone, built in the fifties and since then maintained with tight-assed economy—a little paint every year, a new lock on the door, perhaps a new piece of plumbing here and there as the old rusted out.1998, Debra Di Blasi, “Prayers of an Accidental Nature”, in Prayers of an Accidental Nature: Stories, Minneapolis: Coffee House Press, page 178
- Synonyms:
- anal, fastidious, fussy, finicky, hair-splitting, nitpicky, punctilious
- Reluctant to spend money.
- We have learned how—what do you call it?—tight-assed the white man is with his money.1971, James Schevill, Lovecraft’s Follies, Chicago: Swallow Press, Act I, Scene 3, p. 45
- Cuddles is the one in the money. Ain’t tight-assed about it either, which is why we hang together.1991, Melvin Dixon, Vanishing Rooms,, New York: Dutton, page 28
- Synonyms:
- miserly, stingy, tight-fisted
- Having firm or clenched buttocks.
- He had an eagle tattooed on his chest, a tight-assed, narrow-hipped swagger, and a reputation for having fast hands and clever fingers.1994, Janet Evanovich, chapter 1, in One for the Money, New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, page 3
- We could pop down to the Caymans. Drink some margaritas, watch those tight-assed college boys play beach volleyball.2015, Kimberli A. Bindschatel, Operation Tropical Affair, Traverse City, MI: Turning Leaf, Chapter 8, p. 78
- Fitting tightly in the area covering the buttocks.
- There is no room in his tight-assed pants for his dangling hands.1967, Wright Morris, In Orbit, Chapter 6, in Two for the Road, Santa Rosa: Black Sparrow Press, 1994, p. 264
- […] the women wore hot pants and halter tops and tight-assed skirts.1994, George Pelecanos, chapter 7, in Shoedog,, New York: St. Martin’s Press, page 56
Adverb
tight-assed (not comparable)
- In an uptight or fastidious way.
- When he’d stopped at a saloon for a glass of skullbuster, the bar-keep had been so tight-assed snotty about serving him that he’d taken the one drink in a gulp and then cleared out.1975, Theodore V. Olsen, chapter 3, in Track the Man Down, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, page 35
- they take themselves too tight-assed serious here1978, Norma Fox Mazer, Harry Mazer, chapter 1, in The Solid Gold Kid,, New York: Dell, page 7
Synonyms of tight-assed
7 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of tight-assed
| comparative | more tight-assed |
|---|---|
| superlative | most tight-assed |
| alternative UK | tight-arsed |
Words formed from tight-assed
Questions about tight-assed
- What does tight-assed mean?
- Tight-assed means rigidly maintaining self-control; restricting oneself to generally accepted rules and behaviours.
- What part of speech is tight-assed?
- Tight-assed can be an adjective or an adverb.
Words near tight-assed in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: tight-assed (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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Cite this entry: “tight-assed.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tight-assed. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.