tauten

But this season moves with an icier malevolence than seasons past, and its focus has narrowed and tautened.

“The Guilty” is smartly constructed and tautened with regular twists, but, if it were merely clever, it wouldn’t test your nerves as it does.

Every nerve in his body seemed to tauten: He pulled out his wand, moved into the shadows beside the decapitated elf heads, and waited.

At 9pm the sun went down behind the rig, quite spectacularly, and after that the tow-lines between Winner and her tugs visibly tautened.

For the big picture, Morlot tautened the massive climax at the beginning of the recapitulation.