uptight
adjective
tense, nervous, or jittery.
uptightness
-
a word derived from
uptight.
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.
Those were the days of train travel before uptightness about safety and liability.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 3, 2026
Arti Gollapudi plays all three of Deepali’s older sisters, for example, differing mainly by degrees of uptightness.
From New York Times ● Nov. 20, 2023
We may congratulate ourselves for being beyond such uptightness.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2015
In this instance, though he is by far the least compelling performer of the quartet, his uptightness serves the role well.
From Slate ● Jan. 9, 2015
John Cleese is John Cleese – he is that thing that you see in all of the versions of Cleese, the uptightness, the awkwardness, the Englishness, the sheer embarrassment of being alive, is Cleese.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 22, 2014
