taut

[tawt]

Origin

adjective, taut·er, taut·est.

tightly drawn; tense; not slack.

emotionally or mentally strained or tense: taut nerves.

in good order or condition; tidy; neat.

Origin:
1275–1325; earlier taught, Middle English tought; akin to tow¹

Related forms

taut·ly, adverb

taut·ness, noun

un·taut, adjective

un·taut·ly, adverb

un·taut·ness, noun

Can be confused: taught, taut, taunt.

Synonyms
3. trim, trig, spruce, smart.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Taut is an SAT word you need to know.

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existing in one from birth; inborn; inherent in the essential character of something

command from a superior official to a lower one

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Collins

World English Dictionary

taut (tɔːt)

—*adj*
1.	tightly stretched; tense
2.	showing nervous strain; stressed
3.	chiefly nautical in good order; neat

[C14 tought; probably related to Old English togian to tow¹]

'tautly

—*adv*

'tautness

—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

taut

early 14c., tohte, possibly from tog-, pp. stem of O.E. teon "to pull, drag," from P.Gmc. *tugn, from PIE *deuk- "to lead" (see duke).

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Matching Quote

"Since childhood, I have been enchanted by the fact and the symbolism of the right hand and the left—the one the doer, the other the dreamer. The right is order and lawfulness, le droit. Its beauties are those of geometry and taut implication. Reaching for knowledge with the right hand is science. Yet to say only that much of science is to overlook one of its excitements, for the great hypotheses of science are gifts carried in the right hand. Of the left hand we say that it is awkward and, while it has been proposed that art students can seduce their proper hand to more expressiveness by drawing first with the left, we nonetheless suspect this function. The French speak of the illegitimate descendent as being à main gauche, and, though the heart is virtually at the center of the thoracic cavity, we listen for it on the left. Sentiment, intuition, bastardy. And should we say that reaching for knowledge with the left hand is art? Again it is not enough, for as surely as the recital of a daydream differs from the well-wrought tale, there is a barrier between undisciplined fantasy and art. To climb the barrier requires a right hand adept at technique and artifice."

-Jerome S. Bruner