tightsome

English

Etymology

From tight +‎ -some.

Adjective

tightsome (comparative more tightsome, superlative most tightsome)

1. Characterised or marked by tightness.
   • 1917, Franklin Pierce Adams, Weights and Measures, page 67:

     In the subway, squeezed and tightsome,
     (This is not to be a rhyme
     Of the subway. That I'll write some
     Other time.)

   • 2012, Tony Kinton, Uncertain Horizons:

     I'll make the time in your tightsome schedule to stop and roll you 'round in these here leaves and give you some more learnin'.

   • 2018, Isabella Valancy Crawford, Old Spookses' Pass, page 76:

     But thinkin' what a tightsome squeeze
     The vat wus fur the Agent's knees.

Adverb

tightsome (comparative more tightsome, superlative most tightsome)

1. (nonstandard, regional) In a tightsome manner, tightly.
   • 1914, The Canadian Magazine - Volume 42, page 673:

     Most of him rags, and all of him lean,
     And the belt round his belly drawn tightsome in,
     He lifted his peaked old grizzled head,
     And these were the very same words he said […]

   • 1975, Walter Raymond Iley, Corbridge, Border village, page 169:

     Ye same lassies, tightsome bent, Come, sing along with me.

   • 1997, LaJoyce Martin, The Artist's Quest, page 147:

     Dorrie is bumpin' on twenty-one. She has a right to her own choices. Holdin' a pretty butterfly too tightsome will only crush its wings so's it can't fly anymore.