taut

Etymology

The adjective is derived from Middle English taught [and other forms], Early Middle English tohte, towehte (“strained, stretched; distended; tight; firm”), probably from tough, touth, touʒth, toʒt (“powerful, strong; fierce, violent; not tender, tough; hardy, resilient; steadfast, stout; difficult to do or endure”) and possibly influenced by togen, towen, past participle of ten (“to extend, stretch out; to drag, haul, pull, tow, tug”) (modern English tee (“(obsolete) to draw, lead; to draw away; to go, proceed”)), or directly from its etymon Old English tēon (“to drag, draw, pull”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dewk- (“to draw, pull”)) The word may be related to thight (“(dialectal) compact, dense; close-fitting, tight”) and tight; and is cognate with Scots tacht, taght (“taut”). The verb is probably derived from the adjective.

adj

1. (also figurative) Under tension, like a stretched bowstring, rope, or sail; tight.
   Every piece of binding is first carefully examined and tested; then it is put on, cautiously and accurately. Every turn is hauled taut, taking care that it is in its right place. … A sledge journey of the kind we had before us is a serious undertaking, and the work has to be done seriously. 1912, Roald Amundsen, “The End of the Winter”, in A. G. Chater, transl., The South Pole: An Account of the Norwegian Antarctic Expedition in the “Fram,” 1910–1912 … Translated from the Norwegian … In Two Volumes, volume I, London: John Murray,[…], →OCLC, page 350
   After some moments of interchanging messages with the leaders on the platform, during which the suspense in the hall was tremendously taut, the police left saying that the women arrested would have to report themselves at Bow Street the following morning. 1914, Constance Lytton, Jane Warton [pseudonym; Lady Constance Bulwer-Lytton], “My Conversion”, in Prisons & Prisoners: Some Personal Experiences, London: William Heinemann, →OCLC, page 19
   With an engine of the weight of a Garratt heading a long heavy coal train over such a road great skill in handling was necessary; not only by the enginemen but by the guard; the secret, of course, was to keep the couplings as taut as possible throughout the train to avoid severe "snatches". 1959 March, “Talking of Trains: The L.M.S. Beyer-Garratts”, in Trains Illustrated, page 122
   The cord goes taut, tauter, tautest, till down she trips and Adam has a good laugh. 1971, Yoram Kaniuk, “The Barking”, in [Lazarre] Seymour Simckes, transl., Adam Resurrected: Translated from the Hebrew, New York, N.Y.: Atheneum Books, →OCLC; republished New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, 2008, page 105
   Lisa Jones – a woman in her thirties – sits cross-legged onstage, absent-mindedly tuning the high E-string on an acoustic guitar. She tunes the string up and up until it reaches the correct note – and then continues on past it. … Higher and higher the note, the string growing ever more taut, the fretboard beginning to tremble under the strain, the tension rising – but she still winds the tuning peg, up and up and up and up until … … the string snaps! 2007, Anthony Neilson, The Wonderful World of Dissocia, London: Methuen Drama; republished London, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015, Act I, page 25
   As Red played the intro, he allowed himself a passing glance at her. She was at the back of the crowd, face taut. 2015 January, Win Blevins, Meredith Blevins, “Apocalypso Now”, in Moonlight Water (A Forge Book), New York, N.Y.: Tom Doherty Associates, page 316
2. (of a body, muscles, etc.) Not flabby; firm, toned; (of a person) having a lean, strong body.
   I watched him from the side as he strode along. His walk was quite different; his face too looked tauter. 2014, Erich Maria Remarque, translated by Michael Hofmann, The Promised Land: Translated from the German, London: Vintage Books, page 285
   In a sense, Michelangelo's David is everything his Bacchus was not: firmly in control of himself while the god of wine was teetering on the brink of dissolution; his senses heightened while Bacchus's are dulled. Where one is taut, the other is flaccid. David's toned, athletic body contrasts with Bacchus's effeminate form, illustrating the dichotomy in Michelangelo's mind between the active masculine force and the passive feminine. 2014 July, Miles J. Unger, “The Giant”, in Michelangelo: A Life in Six Masterpieces, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, page 108
   The silky sarong fell away, pooling around her hips with a whisper. Her nipples were pink and taut, the rest of her naked body a soft glow as moonlight flowed through the living room. 2015, Lindsay McKenna, “[Hidden Heart] Chapter 7”, in Lindsay McKenna, Merline Lovelace, edited by Patience Bloom, Course of Action: Crossfire (Harlequin Romantic Suspense; 1853), Don Mills, Ont.: Harlequin Books, page 111
3. (of music, writing, etc.) Containing only relevant parts; brief and controlled.
   If he curbs his swing a little and gets something crisper and tauter in his methods he may yet be very good. 19 March 1921, Bernard Darwin, “Golf on the Forest”, in Peter Anderson Graham, editor, Country Life, volume XLIX, number 1263, London: George Newnes[…], →OCLC, page 321, column 2
   The superbly crafted suspense thriller that director Jonathan Demme has made from Thomas Harris's taut best-selling novel The Silence of the Lambs slams you like a sudden blast of bone-chilling, pulse-pounding terror. 14 February 1991, Peter Travers, “The Silence of the Lambs [film review]”, in Rolling Stone, New York, N.Y.: Wenner Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2017-12-05
   Quick action and dialogue create a taut story, although it is illustration that shapes the characters. 1997, “Minty: A Story of a Young Harriet Tubman (written by Alan Schroeder, 1996) [book review]”, in Linda R. Andres, editor, Children’s Literature Review, volume 43, Detroit, Mich.: Gale Research, page 174, column 2; quoted in Milton C. Sernett, “‘Minty’”, in Harriet Tubman: Myth, Memory and History, Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2007, page 35
   Guitarist Jade Puget and vocalist Davey Havok have distilled AFI's strengths (a ferocious, post-hardcore rhythmic backbone; goth-tinctured, post-punky guitars; and Havok's desperate, dramatic croon) into 14 taut, hook-driven songs. 20 January 2017, Annie Zaleski, “AFI Sounds Refreshed and Rejuvenated on Its 10th Album, AFI (The Blood Album)”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2019-11-03
4. (figurative) Experiencing anxiety or stress.
   His outward appearance was calm, but inside he was very taut. 1989, Faye Kellerman, The Quality of Mercy, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow and Company
5. (nautical, of a sailor, a ship, etc.) Neat and well-disciplined; (by extension) efficient and in order.
   [O]ur friend was a hearty toper in the days of his Whiggery, but no sooner turned one of the tautest of Tories, than he took to the tea-pot. It seems a thing against nature. 1832 September, John Wilson, W[illia]m Maginn, J[ohn] G[ibson] Lockhart, James Hogg [et al.], Noctes Ambrosianæ[…], volume V, number LXII, New York, N.Y.: Redfield[…], published 1854, →OCLC, page 76
   [T]he astonished boy looked round him, and wondered if this could really be the trim, taut ship he had read of. The deck was so encumbered with foul-smelling casks, coils of rope, and masses of rubbish, that there was no room to move; and Jack felt at a loss where to fly to be out of the way of the busy, swearing crew. 1863, Anne Bowman, “The Adventures of Clever Jack”, in Edmund Routledge, editor, Routledge’s Every Boy’s Annual. An Original Miscellany of Entertaining Literature, London, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, Warne, & Routledge,[…], →OCLC, chapter I (Jack Determines to be His Own Master), page 109
   In the tautest schooner that ever swam / He rides at anchor at Anisquam. 1872, John Greenleaf Whittier, “The Sisters”, in The Pennsylvania Pilgrim, and Other Poems, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co., →OCLC, page 103
   You've secured the neatest, trimmest, tautest little craft that ever man could wish to be commander of. 1878, Arthur Hamilton, chapter XXI, in Lawrence Loftewalde. A Tale. … In Three Volumes, volume III, London: Samuel Tinsley & Co.,[…], →OCLC, page 271
   George Szell took up the reins of the Cleveland Orchestra in 1946, and made it one of the world's tautest, most disciplined ensembles, ideal in the classical and early romantic repertory. 2004, Allan Kozinn, “Béla Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra; Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta, and Hungarian Sketches: Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Fritz Reiner, Conducting[…]”, in Classical Music: A Critic’s Guide to the 100 Most Important Recordings (The New York Times Essential Library), New York, N.Y.: Times Books; Henry Holt and Company, page 259
6. (oenology) Strong; uncompromising.
   Yet the 2016 Éxilé rosé from Lise et Bertrand Jousset in the Loire Valley, made mostly of gamay, was yeasty let light and lithe, while the 2016 Indigeno from Ancarani in Emilia-Romagna, made of trebbiano, was taut and earthy. 8 March 2018, Eric Asimov, “Bubbles, with joy: Pétillant Naturel’s triumphant return”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2019-11-13

verb

1. (transitive) To make taut; to tauten, to tighten.
   The machine is operated by a double friction drum hoist. From the rear drum a steel cable, called the tension cable, leads to a set of fall blocks attached to the mast pole. These blocks afford a means for slackening and tauting the track cable, one end of which is supported by the fall blocks and the other fastened to a "dead man" or other suitable anchorage planted in the bank of the pit opposite the dumping point. 1917 August, The Road-maker, volume 2, number 5, Port Huron, Mich.: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 18, column 2
   Men come down to the bare nail / suffer or inflict pain // life demands degradation / tauts the thread that hangs us all: … 2010, Gary Allen, “Piggyback”, in The Next Room, Belfast: Lapwing Publications, page 16
   The global penetration is measured with a potentiometric displacement sensor connected to an impeller. A thin steel cable is fastened with a spring to the vibrator and runs over the rim of the impeller. On the other side, a counterweight of 0.4 kg tauts the cable, …. 2016, J. Vogelsang, G. Huber, T[heodoros] Triantafyllidis, T. Bender, “Interpretation of Vibratory Pile Penetration Based on Digital Image Correlation”, in Theodoros Triantafyllidis, editor, Holistic Simulation of Geotechnical Installation Processes: Benchmarks and Simulations (Lecture Notes in Applied and Computational Mechanics; 80), Cham, Switzerland, Heidelberg: Springer International Publishing, →DOI, →ISSN, section 2.3 (Instrumentation and Data Acquisition), pages 35–36