| Main Entry: | taut |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | rigid, tight |
Synonyms: |
close, firm, flexed, snug, stiff, strained, stressed, stretched, tense, tightly drawn, trim, unyielding |
| Notes: | taunt meant to mock or tease someone; taut means tightly stretched or tense |
Antonyms: |
droopy, flabby, loose, slack |
| Main Entry: | anxious |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | worried, tense |
Synonyms: |
afraid, aghast, antsy*, apprehensive, basket case, bugged, butterflies, careful, choked, clutched, concerned, disquieted, distressed, disturbed, dreading, fearful, fidgety, fretful, hacked, hyper, in a state, in a tizzy, in suspense, jittery, jumpy, nervous, nervy, overwrought, restless, scared, shaking, shaky, shivery, shook up, shot to pieces, solicitous, spooked, strung out, sweating bullets, taut, troubled, uneasy, unglued, unquiet, uptight*, watchful, wired, worried sick, wreck* |
Antonyms: |
assured, calm, content, cool, happy, indifferent, peaceful, tranqil, unconcerned, unworried |
| Main Entry: | drawn |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | tense, fatigued |
Synonyms: |
fraught, haggard, harassed, harrowed, peaked, pinched, sapped, starved, strained, stressed, taut, thin, tired, worn |
Antonyms: |
relaxed, unstressed |
| Main Entry: | firm |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | stable, unmoving |
Synonyms: |
anchored, bolted, braced, cemented, closed, durable, embedded, fast, fastened, fixed, immobile, immovable, motionless, mounted, nailed, petrified, riveted, robust, rooted, screwed, secure, secured, set, settled, soldered, solid, sound, spiked, stationary, steady, strong, sturdy, substantial, taut, tenacious, tight, tightened, unfluctuating, unshakable, welded |
Antonyms: |
moving, unsettled, unstable, wavering |
| Main Entry: | inflexible |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | hardened, stiff |
Synonyms: |
hard, immalleable, impliable, inelastic, nonflexible, rigid, set, starched, taut, unbending |
Antonyms: |
bendable, elastic, flexible, pliable, pliant, resilient, soft |
| Main Entry: | nervous |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | anxious, fearful |
Synonyms: |
afraid, agitated, annoyed, apprehensive, basket case, bothered, concerned, distressed, disturbed, edgy, excitable, fidgety, fitful, flustered, fussy*, hesitant, high-strung, hysterical, irritable, jittery, jumpy, nervy, neurotic, on edge, overwrought, querulous, restive, ruffled, sensitive, shaky*, shrinking, shy, skittish, snappish, solicitous, spooked, taut, tense, timid, timorous, troubled, twitchy, uneasy, unrestful, unstrung, upset, uptight, volatile, weak, wired, worried |
Antonyms: |
brave, calm, unafraid, unnervous, unworried |
| Main Entry: | stiff |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | hard, inflexible |
Synonyms: |
annealed, arthritic, benumbed, brittle, buckram, cemented, chilled, congealed, contracted, creaky, firm, fixed, frozen, graceless, hardened, immalleable, impliable, incompliant, indurate, inelastic, jelled, mechanical, numbed, ossified, petrified, refractory, resistant, rheumatic, rigid, set, solid, solidified, starched, starchy, stark, steely, stiff as a board, stony, taut, tense, thick, thickened, tight, unbending, unflexible, ungraceful, unsupple, unyielding, wooden |
Antonyms: |
flexible, pliable, pliant, soft |
| Main Entry: | strained |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | forced, pretended |
Synonyms: |
artificial, at end of rope, awkward, choked, constrained, difficult, embarrassed, false, farfetched, hard put, in a state, labored, nervous wreck, put, self-conscious, stiff, strung out, taut, tense, tight, uncomfortable, uneasy, unglued, unnatural, unrelaxed, uptight, wired, wreck* |
Antonyms: |
genuine, unforced |
| Main Entry: | tense |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | tight, stretched |
Synonyms: |
close, firm, rigid, stiff, strained, taut |
Antonyms: |
limp, limpid, loose, relaxed, slack |
| Main Entry: | terse |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | brief, short |
Synonyms: |
abrupt, aphoristic, boiled down, breviloquent, brusque, clear-cut, clipped, close, compact, compendiary, compendious, concise, condensed, crisp, cryptic, curt, cut to the bone, elliptical, epigrammatic, exact, gnomic, in a nutshell, incisive, laconic, lean, neat, pithy, pointed, precise, sententious, short and sweet, snappy, succinct, summary, taut, to the point, trenchant |
| Notes: | use terse to characterize brevity or succinctness of expression in a person; concise is used to characterize this in a message |
Antonyms: |
lengthy, long-winded, prolix, wordy |