uptight

uptight
adj
1.
tense, repressed, humourless, unrelaxed. A black slang term which is probably in origin a short form of 'wound-up tight' or 'screwed-up tight'. The term was adopted into the hippy vocabulary to express the unliberated, repressed characteristics of straight society, particularly the authority figures thereof. Since the early 1970s uptight has passed into (mainly middle-class) colloquial usage, although by the late 1980s it had begun to sound rather dated.
► 'The cops? Oh, just about as uptight and corrupt as in Britain.' (Terry Reid interviewed in Oz magazine, February 1979)
2.
American
satisfactory, in good order.
In black American street-talk the expression retains a second, rare and positive connotation, possibly deriving from 'locked-up tight', meaning fixed, settled, under control or, alternatively and more probably, from a sexual sense of being 'coupled' or 'snuggled-up tight'.
► 'It's uptight, everything is all right/Up-tight, it's out of sight.' (Chorus lyric from 'Uptight' by Stevie Wonder, 1963)

Contemporary slang . 2014.

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  • uptight — (adj.) tense, slang, 1934, from UP (Cf. up) + TIGHT (Cf. tight). Meaning straight laced first recorded 1969. It was used in a sense of excellent in jazz slang c.1962 …   Etymology dictionary

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  • uptight — ► ADJECTIVE informal 1) nervously tense or angry. 2) conventional or repressed …   English terms dictionary

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  • uptight — 01. Students are usually [uptight] before a test. 02. My cousin is [uptight] because he doesn t have a job, and he needs money to pay his mortgage. 03. Why are you so [uptight] this evening? What s bothering you? 04. I can tell when he is… …   Grammatical examples in English

  • uptight — adj. VERBS ▪ be, feel, look, seem, sound ▪ get ▪ Try to laugh at it instead of getting uptight. ▪ …   Collocations dictionary

  • uptight — [[t]ʌ̱pta͟ɪt[/t]] ADJ GRADED: usu v link ADJ Someone who is uptight is tense, nervous, or annoyed about something and so is difficult to be with. [INFORMAL] Penny never got uptight about exams... I tend to get very uptight during a match. Syn:… …   English dictionary

  • uptight — mod. anxious. □ Dave always seems uptight about something. □ He is one uptight guy. □ Don’t get uptight before the test …   Dictionary of American slang and colloquial expressions

  • uptight — adjective Date: 1934 1. a. being tense, nervous, or uneasy < uptight overachievers > b. angry, indignant c. rigidly conventional < an uptight conservative > 2. being in financial difficulties • uptightness noun …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • Uptight — Reverso Musikproduktionsges.m.b.H Unternehmensform unbekannt Gründung 1995 Unternehmenssitz Wien, Österreich Unternehmensleitung …   Deutsch Wikipedia

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