uptight

[ uhp-tahyt ]

adjective

, Slang.

1. tense, nervous, or jittery.
2. annoyed or angry.
3. stiffly conventional in manner or attitudes.

uptight

/ ʌpˈtaɪt /

adjective

1. displaying tense repressed nervousness, irritability, or anger
2. unable to give expression to one's feelings, personality, etc

Other Words From

• up·tightness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of uptight¹

1960–65, Americanism; up (perhaps as intensifier) + tight

Example Sentences

An Ethiopian woman stands in front of a young boy, her left arm extended in perfectly perpendicular contrast to her uptight frame.

From Washington Post

She had no time for the idea that kids came second to public duty, or for the uptight Windsor repression of personal feelings in public.

From The Daily Beast

He’s fearless, bold, unafraid to shock people by saying what others think, while Guy is straitlaced, uptight, and seething beneath his polite exterior.

From Vox

Because there wasn’t too much political interference and people uptight about all kinds of stuff.

From Time

I’m an uptight Brit, I don’t tell people stuff about my life.

From Ozy

“It paints the women as shrews, as humorless and uptight, and it paints the men as lovable, goofy, fun-loving guys,” she said.

From The Daily Beast

Read another way, she is a horrible mother, an uptight snob, and a bit of a shrew.

From The Daily Beast

One of the characters I played was an uptight whackjob, so that was probably written for me.

From The Daily Beast

All of this makes even the most well-meaning junior soldier more confused and more uptight.

From The Daily Beast

The producers were looking to start a fight between the laid-back Sebastian and Camille, his uptight counterpart.

From The Daily Beast

She is slender, immaculately dressed, and—as Dr. Feldman could see immediately—rigid and very uptight about herself.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• anxious
• apprehensive
• cautious
• edgy
• nervous
• uneasy