Forms: α. 3–4 toȝt, -e, 4 toght, touht, towt, -e, (tout); 5 towght, 5–7 (9 dial.) tought (7 toft). β. 5–9 taught. γ. 7–9 tort. δ. 8– taut. [The history of this word is in many points obscure. Though the form taught (now spelt taut) is known to us only after 1600, there is little doubt that it is the same word as the ME. toȝt, toght, tought, used also by Capt. Smith 1612 (and in Forby). The etymology of toȝt, toght, is doubtful; but it is generally held to be related in some way to the ablaut-grade tog-, toȝ- of OE. *téohan, téon, TEE v.1, Goth. tiuhan to draw. See Note below.]
† 1. Tense, as a surface; tight, distended, full to distention. Obs.
α. c. 1325. Poem Times Edw. II., 160, in Pol. Songs (Camden), 331. He maketh his mawe touht off the beste. Ibid., 238, ibid., 334. The best he piketh up himself, and maketh his mawe touht.
c. 1380. Sir Ferumb., 4390. Þat ech of hem ne drof forþ on, With pakkes y-charged euerechon, Wyb harneys y-fillid toȝte.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Sompn. T., 559. Than shul this cherl with bely stif and toght As any Tabour, hither ben ybrought.
c. 1450. Songs, Carols, etc. (E.E.T.S.), 118/24. Your brest is so towght, Tyll ye haue well cowght.
1612. Capt. Smith, Map Virginia, 28. They haue a great deepe platter of wood. They couer the mouth thereof with a skin, at each corner they tie a walnut,… with a small rope they twitch them togither till it be so tought and stiffe, that they may beat vpon it as vpon a drumme.
δ. 1878. H. M. Stanley, Dark Cont., I. xvii. 456. Their rounded bodies were as taut as a drumhead.
† b. fig. (?) Firm, firmly fixed or settled, clinched. (See also TOUGHT a.)
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., A. 521. Gos in-to my vyne, dotz þat ȝe conne. So sayde the lorde & made hit toȝt.
2. Tightly drawn, as by longitudinal tension; stiff, tense, not slack. Chiefly in nautical use.
α. 1604. Peele’s Tale Troy, 256. Away they fly, their tackling toft [ed. 1589 teft] and tight.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Taught, tought, tight.
β. a. 1625. Nomenclator Navalis (Harl. MS. 2301). We saie sett taught ye shrowdes ye staies or anie other Roape when it is to slack.
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., ix. 42. Cast of that Boling…, and hale vp taught the other.
1669. Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., I. ii. 18. Hawl them taught and belaye them.
1793. Smeaton, Edystone L., § 259. We … fixed our great tackle to it … and hove all taught.
1816. Scott, Antiq., viii. Haul taught and belay!
c. 1820. G. Beattie, John o’ Arnha’, 55 (Jam.). Ilk tendon, taght like thairm, was lac’d.
1828. Webster, Taught [pron.] taut, stretched; not slack.
1833. Marryat, P. Simple, xxx. II. 174. The yards carefully squared, and the ropes hauled taught.
γ. a. 1687. Petty, Treat. Naval Philos., I. ii. Setting of the Shrowds loose or tort as the Condition of Sailing of the Vessel requires.
1806. W. Taylor, in Ann. Rev., IV. 773. Tort and smooth threads of fax and hemp.
1847. Emerson, Poems (1857), 99. Yet holds he them with tortest rein.
δ. 1727–41. Chambers, Cycl., Taught, or Tau’t,… in the sea langunge, is the same as stiff, or fast.
1796. Nelson, in Southey, Life (1813), II. vi. 1. My complaint is as if a girth were buckled taut over my breast.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xxvii. The land-breeze set in, which brought us upon a taut bowline.
1883. Stevenson, Treas. Isl., V. xxiii. The hawser was as taut as a bowstring.
transf. 1748. Smollett, Rod. Rand., xxiv. (1760), I. 191. Many a taught gale of wind has honest Tom Bowling and I weathered together.
b. Tightly or trimly done up; put into good order. Of a person: Neat in appearance.
1850. T. Forester, Norway in 1848–9, xvii. 367. Her [an English yacht’s] taut appearance so far up these inland waters, on a coast so wild, had a pleasing effect.
1870. Daily News, 1 Dec. Shops ran up shutters, everything was made taut.
1871. Whittier, Sisters, xii. In the tautest schooner that ever swam He rides at anchor in Annisquam.
1880. Clark Russell, Sailor’s Sweetheart, vii. By breakfast-time the ship was clean and taut fore and aft.
1891. Scribner’s Mag., XXI. 271/1. [She appeared] in Miss B——’s shop, taut and trim.
1887. Besant, The World went, i. A fair wind, and the ship taut and trim.
c. fig. Of a person: Strict or severe as to duty.
1833. Marryat, P. Simple, xii. He was considered to be the taughtest (that is, the most active and severe) boatswain in the service.
1851. Kingston, Pirate Medit. (1860), 4. What sort of a chap is our skipper? He looks like a taut hand.
[Note. For the interchange of taught, tought, cf. aught, ought; naught, nought (where however au is the earlier), and the falling together in sound in mod. Eng. of bought, sought, wrought, brought, thought (OE. bohte, sóhte, worhte, brǫhte, þǫhte) with caught, distraught, raught, taught (ME. cahte, distraught, OE. rǽhte, tǽhte, tâhte), where the two sounds remain distinct in Sc. (bocht, thocht, carwcht, tauwcht) and northern Eng. Toȝt, toght, has been suggested to be:—an OTeut. *tohtoz (from ablaut-grade tog-), which is improbable, since no trace of such a form appears in OE. or any of the cognate languages; also, to be a syncopated form of ME. toȝed, now towed (see TOW v.2); this seems impossible. With more probability it has been viewed as an altered form of ME. tiȝt, TIGHT, under the influence of toȝed, or more prob. of toȝen ‘drawn’; pa. pple. of TEE v.1 It is noticeable that toȝt, touȝt, tought, occur also in ME. and Sc. as variants of TOUGH a.]
