Tight-lipped

adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Having the lips pressed tightly together, hence, not speaking.

    "He would have sprung upon Captain Blood, who stood aloof, alert, tight-lipped, and watchful."

  2. 2
    Unwilling to divulge information. idiomatic

    "The open access operator has remained tight-lipped over what may have caused the driver to suddenly apply the brake, but stressed that safety was its priority."

Synonyms

All synonyms
briefbrusquecloseclosemouthedconcisecurt

Example

More examples

"Union representatives remained tight-lipped about their negotiations with management."

Etymology

From tight + lipped.

Related phrases

tight-lippedness

More for "tight-lipped"

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.