taut

taut
    adj 1: pulled or drawn tight; "taut sails"; "a tight drumhead";
           "a tight rope" [syn: {taut}, {tight}]
    2: subjected to great tension; stretched tight; "the skin of his
       face looked drawn and tight"; "her nerves were taut as the
       strings of a bow"
    

Taut \Taut\, a. [Dan. t[ae]t; akin to E. tight. See {Tight}.]
   1. (Naut.) Tight; stretched; not slack; -- said esp. of a
      rope that is tightly strained.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Snug; close; firm; secure.
      [1913 Webster]

   {Taut hand} (Naut.), a sailor's term for an officer who is
      severe in discipline.
      [1913 Webster]
    

56 Moby Thesaurus words for "taut":
      all ataunto, anxious, apprehensive, ataunt, bungup and bilge-free,
      close, dragged out, drawn, drawn out, elongated, extended, firm,
      in suspense, in trim, keyed-up, lengthened, neat, on edge,
      on tenterhooks, on tiptoe, orderly, pokerlike, prolongated,
      prolonged, protracted, pulled, quivering, ramrodlike, renitent,
      rigid, rodlike, shipshape, smart, spruce, spun out, starched,
      starchy, stiff, stiff as buckram, straggling, strained, stretched,
      stretched out, stretched tight, strung out, tense, tidy, tight,
      trig, trim, under a strain, unrelaxed, uptight, virgate,
      with bated breath, with muscles tense