tight as a tick

1. Drunk, as in She was tight as a tick after just one glass of wine. This expression alludes to a tick engorged with the blood of the animals it feeds on. [Slang; mid-1800s]

Example Sentences

Hunt said the election is “as tight as a tick.”

From Washington Times

It should be no surprise that what once looked like a Democratic landslide now appears, as my friend Dan Rather might say, “as tight as a tick.”

From Washington Post

His friends, maybe only half-joking, describe Carter as “tight as a tick.”

From Washington Post

“The Iowa Republican caucuses are tight as a tick entering the final two weeks of the campaign,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.

From New York Times

Warren was making her second visit to the state in two months because Udall’s reelection race against Republican Cory Gardner is what Dan Rather used to call “tight as a tick.”

From Washington Post