tight as a tick en · ADJ
Pronunciation
- (Australia) audio
Meanings
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(not-comparable, qualifier:simile, slang) Drunk, inebriated.
For there ain't no kick Getting tight as a tick When you know that you're not breaking the law
1933, Irving Berlin, “Eighteenth Amen Repealed”, in The Complete Lyrics of Irving Berlin, page 290:
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(not-comparable) Fully inflated; swollen near to bursting.
I blow it up until it's tight as a tick. Just below the skirt through which the lanyard passes, a tiny mouth whistles a single-note tune until the balloon's lungs are emptied.
2002, Steven Callahan, Adrift: Seventy-Six Days Lost at Sea, page 115:
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(not-comparable, qualifier:simile, slang) Unwilling to spend money.
"Son, excuse me, but the woman was as tight as a tick, as my grannie used to say. The reason I didn't work on that car of hers is because the one time I did, I charged her a hundred forty-four dollars for a battery, which as you know is the cost to me. She said I was gouging her."
2003, Anna Quindlen, Blessings: a Novel, page 215:The last time she had visited, Sean's father, Tiny Tim, who was tight as a tick with his money, jovially presided over the place, one big yard filled with rusting cars.
2003, Rita Mae Brown, Catch as Cat Can, page 20:
Synonyms
miserly (unwilling to spend money) · inebriated · intoxicated · full as a tick (fully inflated) · drunk (drunk, inebriated) · thrifty · inflated (fully inflated) · full as a tick · overinflated (fully inflated) · full as a goog · full (fully inflated) · swollen (fully inflated)
Translations (4)
ru в соплю пья́ный (drunk, inebriated) · ru пья́ный в дупель (drunk, inebriated) · ru пья́ный в доску (drunk, inebriated) · ru пья́ный в стельку (drunk, inebriated)