[f. TIGHT a. + -NESS.] The quality or condition of being tight.
1. Closeness of texture; denseness, solidity (obs.); compactness of structure, impermeability. Also fig.
a. 1728. Woodward, Fossils (1729), 125, note. The Bones, are inflexible. Which does not arise from the Inflexibility of the Corpuscles that compose them; but from the Greatness of their Number, and the Firmness and Tightness of their Union and Combination.
1759. Ellis, in Phil. Trans., LI. 207. The tightness of the cask would secure them from the salt water.
1865. Dickens, Mut. Fr., I. viii. Make me as compact a little will as can be reconciled with tightness.
2. The condition of being drawn tight, stretched, or strained; tenseness, tautness.
1780. New Newgate Cal., V. 152. Placing a fife within the cord so as to twist it to a proper tightness.
1793. Beddoes, Scurvy, 63. It was not occasioned by any tightness of dress.
1869. Spurgeon, Treas. David, Ps. iii. 2. Harp-strings need to be screwed up again to their proper tightness.
1885. Manchester Exam., 7 Oct., 5/2. The very tightness with which the screw is being applied renders the probability of a breakdown of the machinery more probable.
b. transf. Constriction felt (as in breathing); hardness (of the pulse). Cf. TIGHTENED.
1785. J. Pearson, in Med. Commun., II. 68. A sense of tightness across the chest.
1898. Allbutts Syst. Med., V. 37. Nothing will relieve the tightness of the chest and the hardness of the cough better than antimony. Ibid. (1899), VI. 49. Diminution in size and increase in tightness of the pulse.
3. The condition of being tipsy. slang.
1864. Daily Tel., 4 Oct. At the first blush, the Americans strike a foreigner as being an exceedingly drunken people . You cannot fail to observe an immense amount of tightness during your walks abroad.
4. Comm. Scarcity of money in the market.
1858. R. S. Surtees, Ask Mamma, lxvii. In consequence of the tightness of the money-market, an early settlement would be agreeable.
1901. Scotsman, 7 March, 6/2. The tightness of money is again beginning adversely to affect gilt-edged stocks.