Word.ws English Dictionary

tightened the purse strings

tightened the purse strings is the simple past and past participle of tighten the purse strings.

Meaning of tighten the purse strings

Verb

tighten the purse strings (third-person singular simple present tightens the purse strings, present participle tightening the purse strings, simple past and past participle tightened the purse strings)

  1. (colloquial, idiomatic) To decrease spending or disallow increased spending; to increase control of spending.
    • ...would have the opposite effect entirely, and would tighten the purse-strings of capitalists and the employers of...1894, New Zealand Parliament, Parliamentary debates, page 710

Questions about tightened the purse strings

What is tightened the purse strings the simple past and past participle of?
Tightened the purse strings is the simple past and past participle of tighten the purse strings.

Words near tightened the purse strings in the dictionary

  1. tighten up
  2. tightenable
  3. tightened
  4. tightened down
  5. tightened one's belt
  6. tightened the purse strings
  7. tightened the purse-strings
  8. tightened the pursestrings
  9. tightened up
  10. tightener
  11. tighteners

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tightened the purse strings (page history and authors); tighten the purse strings (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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