taut

Unlike a McNugget or a chicken fry, both of which are primarily taut pieces of dry stuff that exist as vehicles for sauce, the Cane’s version is obviously and unmistakably chicken.

From Slate ● Aug. 24, 2026

And Spain’s taut, 2-1 victory over Belgium in Friday’s high-stakes quarterfinals match.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 11, 2026

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

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

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 6, 2026

He ran the knot down the thread and pulled it taut and cut off the silk with the scissors from the kit and looked at the boy.

From "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy

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

Could “Lessons” have been a few instructions tauter?

From Washington Post ● Apr. 5, 2022

All told, "Moon Knight" is an odd show in that it gives us characters and actors we'd love to spend more time with, albeit in tauter scenarios than the one presented here.

From Salon ● Mar. 30, 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

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

I’m not suggesting you gather the family on Christmas week for this one, but this tautest of thrillers from the Coen Brothers won Best Picture for a reason.

From New York Times ● Dec. 1, 2016

She was indeed a proud ship, with the tautest masts and the squarest yards of any ship in the British navy.

From The Loss of the Royal George by Horace Petherick