How to Use tighten up in a Sentence

tighten up

verb
  • That would be a huge loss for the Rebels if that lower back tightens up on him.
    — Thomas Jones, Austin American Statesman, 11 Mar. 2026
  • So just tightening up the command.
    — Anthony Solorzano, Los Angeles Times, 18 Feb. 2026
  • Just tightening up the misses a little bit and coming out first batter.
    — Kevin Acee, San Diego Union-Tribune, 19 May 2026
  • Ecuador's defense has tightened up significantly over the course of this first half.
    — Andrew Greif, NBC news, 26 June 2026
  • What Buffalo needed was to calm down and tighten up its defensive game.
    — Matthew Fairburn, New York Times, 13 May 2026
  • Texas has tightened up its defense at the rim against a smallish NC State squad that likes to drive to the cup.
    — Thomas Jones, Austin American Statesman, 18 Mar. 2026
  • Mejuri has also been tightening up its operations due to the changing times.
    — Samantha Conti, Footwear News, 26 May 2026
  • That could play to Minnesota’s advantage and cause the Spurs to tighten up late in a close game.
    — Jace Frederick, Twin Cities, 2 May 2026
  • The Longhorns will have to tighten up their defense after two lackadaisical efforts.
    — Thomas Jones, Austin American Statesman, 21 Feb. 2026
  • One goal for the offseason was tightening up the club’s defensive effort.
    — Damian Calhoun, Daily News, 22 Jan. 2026
  • His change-of-direction fluidity can tighten up.
    — Eddie Brown, San Diego Union-Tribune, 16 Apr. 2026
  • The Spurs need to tighten up around the margins to account for the upcoming regression from 3-point range.
    — Jeff McDonald, San Antonio Express-News, 20 Apr. 2026
  • For that, the mayor needs a more robust plan that will probably involve a mix of tightening up and increasing revenues.
    — New York Daily News Editorial Board, New York Daily News, 30 Jan. 2026
  • But Minnesota, despite giving up a lot of shots against, has tightened up to limit the danger of those chances since the Olympics.
    — Shayna Goldman, New York Times, 15 Apr. 2026
  • If the Mammoth can stop getting caught puck-watching and tighten up a little more defensively, this could go seven games.
    — Shayna Goldman, New York Times, 30 Apr. 2026
  • Since then, price has tightened up just beneath resistance in a shallow consolidation.
    — Josh Brown,sean Russo, CNBC, 26 Feb. 2026
  • Typically about three nights in the -15 to -20 degree range with highs around 0 degrees will tighten up the west end.
    — David Zeug, Outdoor Life, 4 Feb. 2026
  • There is no way the Nuggets are upsetting the Thunder or Spurs without tightening up on the perimeter.
    — Troy Renck, Denver Post, 23 Feb. 2026
  • Deommodore Lenoir even credited Bradley with helping the defense tighten up in the red zone this past season.
    — Dieter Kurtenbach, Mercury News, 21 Jan. 2026
  • Then Haze tightened up the Public Enemy logo.
    — Chuck D, Rolling Stone, 19 May 2026
  • After making up a more than five-second deficit to take the lead, Kirkwood was in front by more than five seconds until two late cautions tightened up the field.
    — CBS News, 15 Mar. 2026
  • The legislation is the latest effort to tighten up how Congress polices itself.
    — Anna Liss-Roy The Washington Post, Arkansas Online, 27 Apr. 2026
  • Uber is tightening up background checks on its drivers amid pressure from lawmakers in several states and a number of high-profile lawsuits.
    — Will McCurdy, PC Magazine, 27 June 2026
  • There’s a lot to tighten up here, and most of the time, this movie ends with him as the fourth-best player on his G League team before landing in Hungary.
    — John Hollinger, New York Times, 20 June 2026
  • Cora said Anthony couldn’t pinpoint exactly when or how his back tightened up, only that it was brought to his attention during the game.
    — Mac Cerullo, Boston Herald, 22 Apr. 2026
  • Unlike the last go-round, Disney’s board tightened up the process by establishing a succession committee.
    — Meg James, Los Angeles Times, 20 Jan. 2026
  • The company handled the core issues fast, Spring insists, from identifying what had gone wrong to tightening up its processes.
    — Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson, semafor.com, 16 Jan. 2026
  • The Mets did it all without Juan Soto, who left the game after the top of the first after his calf tightened up on him while running from first to third in the first inning.
    — Abbey Mastracco, New York Daily News, 4 Apr. 2026
  • Service, on my visits, was a bit spacey, but it’s been tightening up; the tone of the place seems to be in progress, too, oscillating between that of a neighborhood joint, an amorous date-night nook, and a sceney hot spot.
    — Helen Rosner, New Yorker, 5 Apr. 2026
  • His slider is considered average by most evaluators but could be a pitch that elevates Santos into a better position if it’s tightened up.
    — Shawn McFarland, Dallas Morning News, 17 Mar. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'tighten up.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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