tight-assed

American  

[tahyt-ast] / ˈtaɪtˌæst /

adjective

Slang: Vulgar.

1. rigidly self-controlled, inhibited, or conservative in attitude.

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Etymology

Origin of tight-assed

First recorded in 1965–70

Example Sentences

Image: Netflix Then there’s that insane scene in the final episode between the neglected Mrs. Wheeler and the psychopathic, tight-assed newcomer, Billy Hargrove.

From The Verge

When I hear him on his final album covering Rufus Wainwright’s “Going to a Town,” singing, “Tell me, do you really think you go to hell for having loved?” or Elton John’s “Idol,” singing “He was tight-assed/ Walking on broken glass/ Highly prized in the wallet size/ The No. 1 crush in a schoolgirl’s eyes,” I drink in how beautifully he sings those lines.

From Slate

“It has done the trick for me, writing this novel. I am now not the tight-assed literary critic that I was,” he said.

From Washington Post

Various smaller panels showed the “germ cell” of an infant wrapped in a plant bulb, the wonder and dread of medicine, the indigenous fruits and grains of Michigan; and way over in one corner Henry Ford himself, grayfaced and tight-assed, going over the books.

From Literature

That parallel is strongest on what I take as Symphonica’s centerpiece, a cover of the lesser-known Elton John song “Idol” from 1976’s Blue Moods, which paints a “tight-assed … highly prized in the wallet size/ Number-one crush in a schoolgirl’s eyes” star who ends up at “the very bottom.”

From Slate