Tightly

adv. [f. TIGHT a. + -LY².] In a tight manner.

  1.  Soundly, properly, well; effectively; stoutly, vigorously. Cf. TIGHT a. 3. Now dial.

1598.  Shaks., Merry W., I. iii. 88. Hold Sirha, beare you these Letters tightly. Ibid., II. iii. 67. He will Clapper-claw thee tightly.

1598.  B. Jonson, Ev. Man in Hum., II. ii. He shall heare on’t, and that tightly too.

a. 1625.  Fletcher, etc., Fair Maid Inn, II. ii. When we have cozen’d ’em most tightly, thou shalt steal away the innkeeper’s daughter.

a. 1700.  B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Sock, I’ll Drub ye tightly.

1700.  S. L., trans. Fryke’s Voy. E. Ind. 193. Our eight Boats … pursued them so tightly, that … by Noon our Boats were all got within a quarter of a League of ’em.

a. 1713.  Ellwood, Autobiog., 163. He stood up titely to them.

1786.  Burns, Inventory, 41. An’ ay on Sundays duly nightly, I on the questions [= catechism] tairge them tightly.

a. 1825.  Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Tightly,… promptly; actively; alertly.

  2.  With constriction, tension, or compression; closely, tensely; strictly; not loosely. Also fig.

1758.  Rutty, Spir. Diary (ed. 2), 104. A busy week; yet kept to all meetings tightly.

1776.  Trial of Nundocomar, 60/1. A paper, wrapped in a wax cloth … bound tightly down with a string.

1816.  Scott, Lett., 22 Nov. I have settled Walter tightly to his Greek and Latin.

1859.  Habits of Gd. Society, iii. 145. Anything which binds any part of the body tightly impedes the circulation.

1879.  Stevenson, Trav. Cevennes (1886), 34. I was tightly cross-examined about my journey.

1883.  Harper’s Mag., Nov., 904/2. The contests were … more tightly fought out than by the trotting equines.

  3.  Firmly, securely.

1866.  Mrs. Gaskell, Wives & Dau., xlviii. Trying to take one of his hands; but he kept them tightly in his pockets.

1898.  Flor. Montgomery, Tony, 13. Their hands clasped tightly.

  4.  Neatly, tidily, smartly.

1825–9.  Mrs. Sherwood, Lady of Manor, II. xv. 297. It does me good to see you going about … so tightly dressed in your neat little cap and blue apron.

  5.  In comb. with ppl. adj. (used attrib.), as tightly-clenched, -corsetted, -reined, -wound, -wrapped, etc.

1825.  T. Hook, Sayings, Ser. II. Passion & Princ., xii. III. 292. The tightly-strained white kid gloves.

1866.  Howells, Venet. Life, xi. 154. Her tightly-corsetted waist.

1888.  ‘J. S. Winter,’ Bootle’s Childr., iii. Between her tightly-clenched teeth.

1938.  Amos Melton, in Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 13 Nov., 11/8. Robert David O’Brien, the tightly wound little man with the mighty pitching arm, remains to the T. C. U. football machine what gasoline is to the campus jalopy.