taut
adjective /tɔːt/
  /tɔːt/
- stretched tightly
- taut violin strings
 - Keep the rope taut.
 - His skin was stretched taut across his cheekbones.
 
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverbs- be
 - feel
 - become
 - …
 
- with
 
 - showing that you are anxious or tense
- a voice taut with anger
 - Her face was taut and pale.
 - Her body went as taut as a bowstring.
 
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverbs- be
 - feel
 - become
 - …
 
- with
 
 - (of a person or their body) with hard muscles; not fat
- His body was solid and taut.
 
 - (of a piece of writing, etc.) carefully written with no unnecessary parts in it
- a taut thriller
 - the writer’s taut prose
 
 
Word OriginMiddle English tought ‘distended’, perhaps originally a variant of tough.