uptight

• enPR: ŭp-tīt', IPA^(key): /ʌpˈtaɪt/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• Rhymes: -aɪt

uptight (comparative uptighter or more uptight, superlative uptightest or most uptight)

1. (colloquial) Excessively concerned with rules and order, always serious.

   Don't be so uptight! You won't go to jail for crossing the street against the light.

2. Emotionally repressed; nervous and tense.
3. (colloquial) Sexually repressed.

   He came from a very uptight religious background, but you wouldn't know that now!

4. (colloquial) Unfriendly and rude.
   • 1987, Bruce Robinson, Withnail and I:

     Withnail: Just because the best tailoring you’ve ever seen is above your fucking appendix doesn’t mean anything. / Danny: Don’t get uptight with me, man.

uptight (plural uptights)

1. (colloquial) An uptight person.

• anal retentive
• petty bourgeois
• narrow minded
• stuffy