Word.ws English Dictionary

tightens the purse strings

tightens the purse strings is the third-person singular simple present indicative 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 tightens the purse strings

What is tightens the purse strings the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Tightens the purse strings is the third-person singular simple present indicative of tighten the purse strings.

Words near tightens the purse strings in the dictionary

  1. tighteningly
  2. tightenings
  3. tightens
  4. tightens down
  5. tightens one's belt
  6. tightens the purse strings
  7. tightens the purse-strings
  8. tightens the pursestrings
  9. tightens up
  10. tighter
  11. tighter than Dick's hatband

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tightens 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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “tightens the purse strings.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tightens_the_purse_strings. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.