tauten
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.
See Examples For:
But as the summer wears on and the management begins withholding pay, the structure tightens, the conflicts tauten and Ms. Irwin’s larger concerns come into sharper focus.
From New York Times ● Sep. 4, 2014
The lips, extravagantly full, can pout or preen or tauten resolutely or open in an elfin smile.
From Time Magazine Archive
The silence seemed to tauten and strain as Dumbledore spoke.
From "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling
Every nerve in his body seemed to tauten: He pulled out his wand, moved into the shadows beside the decapitated elf heads, and waited.
From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling
I used to curl up my tongue in front of the mirror and tauten my frenum into a white line, itself as thin as a razor blade.
From "The Woman Warrior" by Maxine Hong Kingston
The “Yellowjackets” cast tautens the narrative slack with muscular performances and some of the actors’ native likability.
From Salon ● Feb. 14, 2025
His whole being tautens; the chin is implacable; justice is served.
From The New Yorker ● Dec. 9, 2016
Our attention flicks from executioner to client and back again – Kevin Dyer's direction gently tautens the tension.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 10, 2013
As the lot approaches, one's heartbeat quickens, the mouth grows dry, the body tautens.
From Newsweek ● Mar. 19, 2010
Suddenly he tautens up his muscles and stands up straight with shoulders back and clenched hands.
From Plays of Near & Far by Dunsany, Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, Baron
The first face-lifts essentially lifted, tautened and re-draped facial skin.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 30, 2022
But this season moves with an icier malevolence than seasons past, and its focus has narrowed and tautened.
From Salon ● May 5, 2019
“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.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 19, 2018
It would be helpful if Mr. Suh had tidied up his material and tautened his second act, which lacks some of the furious zaniness of the first and ends at least three times.
From New York Times ● Nov. 10, 2015
The rope to the lifeboat tautened with a jerk rather than with a tug, and the rocking of the raft became more pronounced and erratic.
From "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel
You feel a certain tautening of wit, plus a keen and very Coen-like awareness that clichés, which abound in the genre of the spy drama, are there to be flirted with.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 26, 2015
Holbein has simply painted a dead body, showing its greenish skin and tautening sinews as decay sets in.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 19, 2014
To the Arabs, it brought a tautening of determination and a more sober assessing of their chances for victory.
From Time Magazine Archive
It was about then that sophisticated New Yorkers knew that the Mad Bomber was not just whistling through his teeth; the sensation-loving papers cheerfully nursed the tautening nerves.
From Time Magazine Archive
An oily calm spreading across the sea from shoreward overhauled her by degrees, overtook, and held her, with sails idle and sheets tautening and sagging as she rolled on the heave of the swell.
From Sir John Constantine Memoirs of His Adventures At Home and Abroad and Particularly in the Island of Corsica: Beginning with the Year 1756 by Quiller-Couch, Arthur Thomas, Sir
