tightening

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)

tightening
    n 1: the act of making something tighter; "the tightening of
         economic controls" [ant: {laxation}, {loosening}]

from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

Tighten \Tight"en\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Tightened}; p. pr. &
   vb. n. {Tightening}.]
   To draw tighter; to straiten; to make more close in any
   manner.
   [1913 Webster]

         Just where I please, with tightened rein
         I'll urge thee round the dusty plain.    --Fawkes.
   [1913 Webster]

   {Tightening pulley} (Mach.), a pulley which rests, or is
      forced, against a driving belt to tighten it.
      [1913 Webster]

from Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0

52 Moby Thesaurus words for "tightening":
      accelerando, acceleration, aggravation, beefing-up, blowing up,
      blowup, clamping, clamping down, compression, concentration,
      condensation, consolidation, crescendoing, crescent, crush,
      deepening, enhancement, exacerbation, exaggeration, expanding,
      explosion, growing, heating-up, heightening, increasing,
      incremental, information explosion, intensification, intensifying,
      lengthening, magnification, multiplying, nip, on the increase,
      pickup, pinch, population explosion, press, pressure,
      proliferating, redoubling, reinforcement, snowballing, speedup,
      spreading, squeeze, squeezing, step-up, strengthening, swelling,
      tweak, waxing

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