belt-tighten en · VERB
Etymology
Back-formation from belt-tightening, from tighten one's belt.
Meanings
-
(figuratively, intransitive) To tighten one's belt.
They light some kind of flame in viewers who don’t have lots of attractive relatives and would enjoy learning that love matters more than money, even if it means your kids may have to go to a state school and you may have to belt-tighten down to one house instead of two.
2016 March 27, Janet Maslin, “Review: In ‘The Nest,’ a Family Pot to Split Sets Sibling Relations to a Slow Boil”, in The New York Times:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| belt-tightened | Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic | |
| belt-tightened | Tense=Past | lexicographic | |
| belt-tightens | Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres | lexicographic | |
| belt-tightening | Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic |