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# tighten

«tighten» in Mova's school dictionary: **To make something tighter or firmer: "Tighten the screw"…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

verb (tighten, tightens, tightened, tightening)

### meaning for a pupil

1) To make something tighter or firmer: "Tighten the screw", "Tighten your shoelaces." [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tighten/#m1)

2) To become tighter: "His grip tightened." [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tighten/#m2)

3) To make rules stricter: "The school tightened the rules." [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tighten/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In everyday life and safety, people tighten seat belts, helmet straps, bike bolts and screws. In design and technology, pupils tighten nuts with a spanner. Phrases: tighten up, tighten your belt (spend less money), tighten your grip.

### examples

- Tighten your helmet strap before riding. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tighten/#x1)
- Dad tightened the wheel nuts on the car. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tighten/#x2)
- Tighten the lid so the jar does not leak. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tighten/#x3)
- The rope tightened as the boat pulled. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tighten/#x4)
- The rules were tightened after the accident. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tighten/#x5)
- Turn the screw clockwise to tighten it. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tighten/#x6)
- Rudy tightened it, and thus secured the bird alive. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tighten/#x7)

### note

Regular verb: tighten, tightened. Opposite: "loosen". A rhyme to remember: "righty tighty, lefty loosey" (turning right, clockwise, usually tightens a screw). "Tighten your belt" means spend less money.

### In the corpora

- [In Atlanta, Tyrone's mom says, «We fixin' to tighten belts.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/488-the-electric-meter-the-food-bank-and-we-cant-afford-it/14/)
- [Cramp is a muscle that suddenly tightens and won't let go, often a calf in the last tired minutes of a match.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/37-warming-up-stitches-and-cramp/4/)
- [A lump in the throat when you hold back tears is the throat muscles tightening; it is an automatic stress reaction that fades.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/66-picking-teams-and-being-picked-last/6/)
- [Disappointment can tighten the throat muscles as you hold back tears; it fades, especially once you're moving.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/70-the-kid-who-is-always-on-the-bench/15/)
- [When the diaphragm tightens and moves down, the chest gets bigger and air flows into the lungs.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/93-lungs-air-keeping-fit/10/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «tighten» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tighten/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.