1707. Farquhar, Beaux Stratagem, i. 1. But you look so bright, And are dress'd so tight.
1714. Gay, What d'ye call it, i. 1. I'll make a loving wife . . . day and night . . . and keep our children tight. Ibid. (1714), Shepherd's Week, vi. Here the tight lass, knives, combs, and scissors spies, And looks on thimbles with desiring eyes.
1748. Thomson, Castle of Indolence, lxix. He had a roguish twinkle in his eye . . . If a tight damsel chaunced to trippen by.
d. 1758. Ramsay, Auld Man's Best Argument. Gie me the lad that's young and tight. Ibid., Bessy Bell and Mary Gray. Blythe as a kid, wi' wit at will, She blooming, tight, and tall is.
c. 1796. Dibdin, The Snug Little Island. O, 'tis a snug little island! A right little, tight little island. Ibid. 'Poor Jack.' A tight little boat and good sea room give me, And 'taint for a little I'll strike.
1822. Scott, Fort. Nigel, xxxi. Look at them—they are a' right and tight, sound and round, not a doublet crept in amongst them.
1851. Hawthorne, Seven Gables, xiii. It will take a tighter workman than I am to keep the spirits out of the seven gables.
1852. Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin, viii. A tight, likely wench she was, too.
2. (colloquial).—Close; stingy; dear; hard-up. Hence A tight (=straightened) market; tight (=scarce) money; a tight (=hard) bargain; a tight (=stingy) man: cf. EASY. Hence to tighten=to become dear (of money).
18[?]. Widow Bedott Papers, 30. The Deacon was as tight as the skin on his back; begrudged folks their victuals when they came to his house.
c. 1859. N. Y. Tribune [Bartlett]. The money market, except on the best stocks, is getting tight, and there is a general calling in of loans upon the 'fancies.'
1867. Trollope, Last Chron. of Barset, xlii. I never knew money to be so tight as it is at this moment.
1863. Lever, Bramleighs of Bishop's Folly, 1. xxi. A few curt sentences . . . told how matters stood in the City; money was tight.
1883. D. Teleg., 24 Nov. Lenders avoiding this class of paper from a belief that the market will, as usual, 'tighten up' towards the end of the year.
1891. Harry Fludyer, 49. Money is particularly valuable up here now—what the Pater calls 'tight' when he speaks of the bank rate.
1900. White, West End, 16. I cannot quite remember how Low brought Lady Elverton's name into the conversation, but I think it was in association with money being tight.
3. (colloquial).—Severe; hard; difficult: e.g., A TIGHT (=a straining) pull; a tight (=barely possible) SQUEEZE; A TIGHT (=awkward) position (corner place, etc.); a tight=(hacking) COUGH.
1855. Haliburton, Human Nature, 217. It's a tight squeeze sometimes to scrouge between a lie and the truth in business.
4. (common).—Drunk; full of liquor: see Screwed.
d.1867. Browne, Artemus Ward in London (1899). Took to gin-and-seltzer, gettin' tight every day afore dinner with the most disgustin' reg'larity.
186[?]. C. H. Ross, The Husband's Boat. And now when he did get tight, He used to go it proper right, Did grandfather!
1868. Lever, Bramleighs of Bishop's Folly, 11. iii. 'No, sir, not a bit tipsy,' said Harding, interpreting his glance; 'not even what Mr Cutbill calls tight!'
1871. W. Carleton, Johnny Rich. When you staggered by next night, Twice as dirty as a serpent and a hundred times as tight.
1876. Habberton, Barton Experiment, 126. It's kinder discouragin' to lend a fellow that gets tight a good deal . . . it's hard enough to get paid by folks that always keep straight.
