Tight-assed
adj, adv, slang ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 Rigidly maintaining self-control; restricting oneself to generally accepted rules and behaviours. derogatory, informal
"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."
- 2 Excessively concerned with unimportant details; obsessively precise. derogatory, informal
"[…] 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."
- 3 Reluctant to spend money. derogatory, informal
"We have learned how—what do you call it?—tight-assed the white man is with his money."
- 4 Having firm or clenched buttocks. informal
"He had an eagle tattooed on his chest, a tight-assed, narrow-hipped swagger, and a reputation for having fast hands and clever fingers."
- 5 Fitting tightly in the area covering the buttocks. informal
"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."
- 1 In an uptight or fastidious way. derogatory, informal, not-comparable
"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."
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"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."
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.