# tight-assed
## English
### Alternative forms

* tight-arsed (UK)

### Adjective

tight-assed (comparative more tight-assed, superlative most tight-assed)
* (informal, derogatory) Rigidly maintaining self-control; restricting oneself to generally accepted rules and behaviours.
    Synonyms: conservative, conventional, inhibited, repressed, straight-laced, stuffy, uptight
    Antonyms: easy-going, laid-back, relaxed
** 1982, Patricia Burstein, chapter 12, in Family Holiday,‎, New York: William Morrow, page 182:Assemblyperson Baker, as she probably liked to be addressed, had all the lyricism and sensuality of Betty Crocker. She was so tight-assed that she even wore stockings in the tropics.
** 1991, Douglas Coupland, Generation X, New York: St. Martin's Press, →OCLC, page 14:This noncritical atmosphere works for us because the three of us are so tight assed about revealing our emotions.
** 2011, Robert Harris, chapter 4, in The Fear Index‎, London: Hutchinson, pages 63–64:A group of pedestrians waited on the corner opposite for the lights to change even though there was no traffic coming in either direction. After watching them for a while Hoffmann muttered savagely, ‘The goddam tight-assed Swiss...’
* (informal, derogatory) Excessively concerned with unimportant details; obsessively precise.
    Synonyms: anal, fastidious, fussy, finicky, hair-splitting, nitpicky, punctilious
** 1964, Christopher Isherwood, A Single Man, London: Minerva, published 1991, page 62:[…] Gottlieb obviously wishes, above all else in life, that he could turn himself into that miserable don and learn to write his spiteful-playful tight-assed vinegar prose.
** 1998, Debra Di Blasi, “Prayers of an Accidental Nature”, in Prayers of an Accidental Nature: Stories‎, Minneapolis: Coffee House Press, page 178:It was a typical old brownstone, built in the fifties and since then maintained with tight-assed economy—a little paint every year, a new lock on the door, perhaps a new piece of plumbing here and there as the old rusted out.
* (informal, derogatory) Reluctant to spend money.
    Synonyms: miserly, stingy, tight-fisted
** 1971, James Schevill, Lovecraft’s Follies‎, Chicago: Swallow Press, Act I, Scene 3, p. 45:We have learned how—what do you call it?—tight-assed the white man is with his money.
** 1991, Melvin Dixon, Vanishing Rooms,‎, New York: Dutton, page 28:Cuddles is the one in the money. Ain’t tight-assed about it either, which is why we hang together.
* (informal) Having firm or clenched buttocks.
** 1994, Janet Evanovich, chapter 1, in One for the Money‎, New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, page 3:He had an eagle tattooed on his chest, a tight-assed, narrow-hipped swagger, and a reputation for having fast hands and clever fingers.
** 2015, Kimberli A. Bindschatel, Operation Tropical Affair, Traverse City, MI: Turning Leaf, Chapter 8, p. 78,
    We could pop down to the Caymans. Drink some margaritas, watch those tight-assed college boys play beach volleyball.
* (informal, of an article of, clothing) Fitting tightly in the area covering the buttocks.
** 1967, Wright Morris, In Orbit, Chapter 6, in Two for the Road, Santa Rosa: Black Sparrow Press, 1994, p. 264,
    There is no room in his tight-assed pants for his dangling hands.
** 1994, George Pelecanos, chapter 7, in Shoedog,‎, New York: St. Martin’s Press, page 56:[…] the women wore hot pants and halter tops and tight-assed skirts.
** 2012, Robert Littell, chapter 8, in Young Philby,‎, New York: Thomas Dunne Books, page 164:The waiters were all beautiful Portuguese Nancy boys dressed in tight French sailor suits—striped shirts, tight-assed bell bottoms, a blue cap with a red pompadour—and reeking of delectably cheap perfume.

#### Derived terms

* tightass

### Adverb

tight-assed (not comparable)
* (informal, derogatory) In an uptight or fastidious way.
** 1975, Theodore V. Olsen, chapter 3, in Track the Man Down‎, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, page 35:When he’d stopped at a saloon for a glass of skullbuster, the bar-keep had been so tight-assed snotty about serving him that he’d taken the one drink in a gulp and then cleared out.
** 1978, Norma Fox Mazer, Harry Mazer, chapter 1, in The Solid Gold Kid,‎, New York: Dell, page 7:they take themselves too tight-assed serious here

### Further reading

* “tight-arsed adj.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present