taut

Grasping a pair of dark grey trousers, it raised its upper body to stretch the fabric taut, before laying it flat and arranging it into neat halves.

From Barron's ● Jun. 11, 2026

On the line of limited-edition T-shirts Palantir launched last year, CEO Karp appears in watercolor, neck muscles taut and eyes hidden by dark sunglasses, above his favorite motto, “Dominate.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 19, 2026

Sometimes I imagine the table, the net taut as a border fence.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 6, 2026

Mitski’s songs have the taut efficiency of the best country-music songwriting, where a situation is introduced and played out to its conclusion, sometimes with an unexpected twist.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 24, 2026

Jay, taut and grim-faced, anticipates when to loosen or tighten the rope.

From "Paradise on Fire" by Jewell Parker Rhodes

With judicious trimming, particularly of the occasional puddle of expository or repetitive dialogue, the play would gain a tauter pace.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 26, 2025

The device, called CoolSculpting, was entering an already-crowded beauty industry selling flatter stomachs and tauter jawlines, but it had an advantage: a vaunted scientific pedigree.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 17, 2023

The device, called CoolSculpting, was entering an already-crowded beauty industry selling flatter stomachs and tauter jaw lines, but it had an advantage: a vaunted scientific pedigree.

From New York Times ● Apr. 16, 2023

Could “Lessons” have been a few instructions tauter?

From Washington Post ● Apr. 5, 2022

And once more there was silence; and the expectancy, momentarily relaxed, was stretched again, tauter, tauter, almost to the tearing point.

From "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley

The strongest, tautest story in the collection is “The Haunting of Hajji Hotak,” again told in second person, this time from the perspective of a government surveillant.

From New York Times ● Jul. 19, 2022

One of the tautest exchanges took place when Ose challenged Faulconer’s record on dealing with homelessness, a cornerstone of the former mayor’s campaign.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 4, 2021

Although it doesn’t rule out backup like horns and singers, “Look Now” channels Mr. Costello’s stylistic wanderings back into his tautest rock-band format.

From New York Times ● Sep. 12, 2018

Affleck bested Denzel Washington, who starred and directed in “Fences;” the look on his face when Affleck’s name was read speaks as forcefully as any of August Williams’ tautest phrases.

From Salon ● Feb. 27, 2017

He hangs in the Willows a night and a day; He rifles the Buckwheat patches; Then battens his store of pelf galore Under the tautest hatches.

From Songs from Vagabondia by Richard Hovey