uptight
Americanadjective
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tense, nervous, or jittery.
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annoyed or angry.
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stiffly conventional in manner or attitudes.
adjective
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displaying tense repressed nervousness, irritability, or anger
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unable to give expression to one's feelings, personality, etc
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of uptight
Explanation
To be uptight is to be tense. When you're uptight, you're stressed out and anxious. If your friends are always telling you to relax, you may be a little uptight. People who are uptight tend to be stressed out. Your worried grandmother might be considered uptight, and so might your sister's angry teacher who is always yelling at the class. The adjective uptight was first used as popular slang in the 1930's to mean "tense." In the 1960's, the connotation changed to "straight-laced" or "conservative." For a brief time, uptight appeared in jazz slang meaning "excellent."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Uptight and disagreeable, St. John’s George Lattimer isn’t a conventional hero; nor, as The Amsterdam News dryly noted in a generally favorable review, “the stuff of which positive images are made.”
From New York Times • Feb. 17, 2022
Uptight Allison Torres and her charming, but far too permissive husband Carlos seem never to have asked themselves a single one of these questions.
From Slate • Mar. 23, 2021
He even made the cover of Time magazine, which in 1970 proclaimed him the "Star for an Uptight Age."
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 15, 2015
Reporting from the Seriously Uptight Front is painter Terry Leness, whose hyper-precise oils on canvas come furnished with nicely biting titles.
From Seattle Times • Dec. 19, 2013
Uptight, frightened adversaries only a few hours before, now there was almost a mystical closeness and sense of companionship between them.
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
