TIGHTENING

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does tightening mean? 

• TIGHTENING (noun)
  The noun TIGHTENING has 1 sense:

1. the act of making something tighter

  Familiarity information: TIGHTENING used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TIGHTENING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of making something tighter

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Context example:

the tightening of economic controls

Hypernyms ("tightening" is a kind of...):

adjustment; alteration; modification (the act of making something different (as e.g. the size of a garment))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "tightening"):

take-up (the action of taking up as by tightening or absorption or reeling in)

Antonym:

loosening (the act of making something less tight)

Derivation:

tighten (make tight or tighter)

 Context examples 

A grip of the hand, the tightening of an arm over the shoulder, a sob in unison, are expressions of sympathy dear to a man's heart.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

A relatively painless, irregular tightening sensation felt by the pregnant mother over the abdomen after the 28th week of pregnancy, that lasts about a minute each time

(False Labor, NCI Thesaurus)

A permanent tightening of the muscles, tendons, skin, and nearby tissues that causes the joints to shorten and become very stiff.

(Contracture, NCI Dictionary)

The tightening of scar tissue that forms around the implant.

(Capsular Contracture, NCI Thesaurus)

Buck threw himself forward, tightening the traces with a jarring lunge.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Symptoms can range from upset stomach and diarrhea, to hives and itching, to tightening of the throat and trouble breathing.

(Peanut Consumption in Infancy Lowers Peanut Allergy, NIH)

A heart disorder in which the pericardial sac becomes thickened and fibrotic, tightening the myocardium and impeding the normal myocardial function.

(Constrictive Pericarditis, NCI Thesaurus)

On these his eager, questioning eyes were fixed, and I saw on his keen, alert face that tightening of the lips, that quiver of the nostrils, and concentration of the heavy, tufted brows which I knew so well.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He was firmly planted on his legs; his feet struck the deck squarely and with surety; every movement of a muscle, from the heave of the shoulders to the tightening of the lips about the cigar, was decisive, and seemed to come out of a strength that was excessive and overwhelming.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The rope thus tightening on him in the sweep of the current, he was jerked under the surface, and under the surface he remained till his body struck against the bank and he was hauled out.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)