A - Z Database
Tight as in drunk dates from 1830. Tight, as in stingy or miserly as in tight-fisted is originally American and dates from 1805. Tight, as in close, s...
In British usage since the very early 20th century and describes a mean, miserly person. In America, the meaning is slightly different and means a pru...
Tight as a drum means taut, secure, close fitting, sometimes in the sense of watertight and dates in this sense from the mid-19th century. It derives...
Tight as a tick means drunk, dates from the mid-19th century, from the allusion to a tick, a blood-sucking insect, engorged with the blood of the anim...
see Corner
Tight lipped means speaking very little, close-mouthed, sometimes implying cross or annoyed, is originally American and dates from c. 1880.
Tight fisted means stingy or miserly and is originally American dating from 1805, from the obvious allusion to holding onto money within tightly close...
To keep a tight rein on someone is to control them closely, as one would with a horse. The expression dates from the 1500s and is the opposite of givi...
This figurative expression meaning to curtail one’s expenditure or endure hardship stoically dates from the early 20th century from the obvious allusi...
see Put the screws on
see Until the cows come home
Means wasting time and effort with imaginary obstacles and first appears in the form of ‘fighting with windmills’ from the mid-17th century. The expre...
This is an ancient proverb meaning that man has no control over time or the tidal movements of the world’s oceans, and as such it has existed in many...
see River of time
This ancient proverb is attributed to the roman poet Terence (c. 190-159 BC), who wrote in Latin, Diem adimere aegritudinem hominibus which means lite...