uptight

See also: up-tight

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: ŭp-tīt', IPA^(key): /ʌpˈtaɪt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪt

Adjective

uptight (comparative uptighter or more uptight, superlative uptightest or most uptight)

1. (colloquial) Excessively concerned with rules and order, always serious.

   Don't be so uptight! You won't go to jail for crossing the street against the light.

2. Emotionally repressed; nervous and tense.
3. (colloquial) Sexually repressed.

   He came from a very uptight religious background, but you wouldn't know that now!

4. (colloquial) Unfriendly or rude.
   • 1987, Bruce Robinson, Withnail and I:

     Withnail: Just because the best tailoring you’ve ever seen is above your fucking appendix doesn’t mean anything. / Danny: Don’t get uptight with me, man.

Translations

(colloquial) Excessively concerned with rules and order, always serious

Dutch: geremd (nl) Finnish: kireä (fi), niuhottava (fi), ahdasmielinen (fi) French: coincé (fr) German: verklemmt (de) Macedonian: на́пнат (nápnat) Polish: spięty Russian: чопорный (ru) (čopornyj), чинный (ru) (činnyj), напряженный (ru) (naprjažennyj)

Noun

uptight (plural uptights)

1. (colloquial) An uptight person.

See also

• anal-retentive
• petty bourgeois
• narrow-minded
• stuffy