Word.ws English Dictionary

up-tight

up-tight is the alternative form of uptight.

Meaning of uptight

Adjective

uptight (comparative uptighter or more uptight, superlative uptightest or most uptight)

  1. (colloquial) Excessively concerned with rules and order, always serious.
    • Don't be so uptight! You won't go to jail for crossing the street against the light.
  2. Emotionally repressed; nervous and tense.
  3. (colloquial) Sexually repressed.
    • He came from a very uptight religious background, but you wouldn't know that now!
  4. (colloquial) Unfriendly or rude.
    • Withnail: Just because the best tailoring you’ve ever seen is above your fucking appendix doesn’t mean anything. / Danny: Don’t get uptight with me, man.1987, Bruce Robinson, Withnail and I

See all 5 meanings of uptight

Forms of up-tight

comparativeup-tighter
comparativemore up-tight
superlativeup-tightest
superlativemost up-tight

Questions about up-tight

What is up-tight the alternative form of?
Up-tight is the alternative form of uptight.

Words near up-tight in the dictionary

  1. up-regulating
  2. up-regulation
  3. up-stairs
  4. up-tick
  5. up-ticks
  6. up-tight
  7. up-tighter
  8. up-tightest
  9. up-to-code
  10. up-to-date
  11. up-to-dateness

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: up-tight (page history and authors); uptight (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: “up-tight.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/up-tight. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.