Of persons, "stingy, close-fisted, parsimonious" (1805, colloquial), "drunk" (1830), "close, intimate, sympathetic" (1956). It is attested from 1670s as an adverb; to sit tight broadly as "maintain one's position" is from 1738; sleep tight as a farewell in sending someone off to ...
"to be or fall asleep; lie or remain dormant or inactive" (class VII strong verb; past… See origin and meaning of sleep.
Extract from W. W. Skeat's Etymological Dictionary of the English Language (2nd edition - 1883) - chapter xxiii.]In the course of the work, we have been led to adopt the following canons which merely express well-known principles and are nothing new. Still, in the form of definite state...
Of persons, "stingy, close-fisted, parsimonious" (1805, colloquial), "drunk" (1830), "close, intimate, sympathetic" (1956). It is attested from 1670s as an adverb; tosit tightbroadly as "maintain one's position" is from 1738;sleep tightas a farewell in sending someone off to bed is...
derived from slave dancing on plantations. Adouble-dip(n.) originally was an ice-cream cone made with two scoops (1936); the figurative sense is by 1940.Double bed"bed made to sleep two persons" is by 1779.Double life"a sustaining of two different characters in life" (typically one virt...
where it forms more than 1,000 compounds. It disputes with Latin-derived cognatein-(1) the right to form the negation of certain words (indigestable/undigestable, etc.), and though both might be deployed in cooperation to indicate shades of meaning (unfamous/infamous), typically they are ...
Torule the roostis recorded from 1769, according to OED apparently an alteration of earlierrule the roast"be the master, have authority " (c. 1500), which, OED reports, was "In very common use fromc1530 onwards." However, Fowler (1926) has doubts: "most unliterary persons sayroost& no...
To lie rough; to lie all night in one's clothes: called also roughing it. Likewise to sleep on the bare deck of a ship, when the person is commonly advised to chuse the softest plank. [Grose, "Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue," 1788] ...
mid-14c., "type of tight-fitting men's outer garment covering the body from the neck to the hips or thighs," from Old Frenchdoublet(12c.), from diminutive ofduble"double, two-fold," from Latinduplus"twofold, twice as much" (seedouble(adj.)). ...
It is reconstructed to be from Proto-Germanic*strangaz(source also of Old Norsestrangr"strong," Dutchstreng"strict, rigorous," Old High Germanstrang"strong, bold, hard," Germanstreng"strict, rigorous"). This is possibly from a PIE*strenk-"tight, narrow" (seestring(n.)). ...