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taut
in a sentence

show 188 more with this conextual meaning
  • Then I would look at him, too, and notice how the skin on his chin was taut and plastic; how his lips lacked natural roundness; how his cheeks sucked inward at an angle that was almost skeletal.†   (source)
  • She followed, along with others, and tied the canes on the taut wire that was stretched post to post.†   (source)
  • The tension in the air was as taut as the glass string I was tugging with my bloody hands.†   (source)
  • Tears streamed down his reddened cheeks in a continual flow, his face a taut mask of pain.†   (source)
  • Her body had become a slender, taut line.†   (source)
  • The lines were pulled taut, and the protocarpus tree was lifted clear.†   (source)
  • HIS AVIATOR'S HELMET again flapping over his ears, Otis Amber danced up to his soup-kitchen companion, flung his arms around the taut body, and squeezed her tightly.†   (source)
  • August came around, and the peace of the countryside was a balm to their taut nerves.†   (source)
  • Even the muscles in his forearm are taut, defined.†   (source)
  • Though tautly stretched at the end of the boat, it sagged a little in the middle; it made for three or four toilsome, bouncy steps.†   (source)
  • Her face was pulled taut in pain, and she jerked in her sleep.†   (source)
  • His sinews felt taut with exhilaration.†   (source)
  • Alby yelled, his lips taut with anger, eyes on fire.†   (source)
  • Tally pulled the rope taut and lashed it to the usual tree.†   (source)
  • The flesh cloven along the bones, the ligaments dried to tug and taut as wires.†   (source)
  • Mr. Crouch's face was taut with rage.†   (source)
  • The bell is suspended and the wire remains taut, running vertically through the hole he has drilled in the wall.†   (source)
  • Her leg muscles were stretched and taut.†   (source)
  • Now I had a long, taut line running perpendicular to the rover.†   (source)
  • As Luther stared at his eggs, the green thread became taut; then it swung counterclockwise and came to rest along his left shoulder.†   (source)
  • For ten years he'd been working these very same fields, his eyes were still clear, his back was straight, his skin was taut, his belly remained lean and hard.†   (source)
  • She stopped at the mirror in the hallway and pulled up her shirt to examine her taut stomach muscles.†   (source)
  • Then he nodded to Colonel Eiger and the young, frightened-looking first lieutenant; they matched their steps to the casket, they removed the American flag and snapped it taut—the medal bouncing like a coin, but it was pinned fast to the flag and couldn't fall.†   (source)
  • Her skin is blacker than Aibileen's by ten shades, and shiny and taut, like a pair of new patent shoes.†   (source)
  • Bows groaned as the archers on the mezzanine pulled their strings taut.†   (source)
  • It pulled taut just as the mob reached it, and they went sprawling over it and into the mud, a tangled heap of flailing limbs.†   (source)
  • He was so skinny, just skin stretched taut over bones.†   (source)
  • My body prickles with nerves, every muscle taut and ready.†   (source)
  • The air, which had been stretched taut with excitement, relaxed again.†   (source)
  • The line became taut and she strained to hold on tight.†   (source)
  • And I don't want her to feel frightened, to feel the fear that is now tightening my muscles, tensing my spine, pulling me so taut that I'm certain I would break if touched.†   (source)
  • I saw the line quickly swing up and become taut.†   (source)
  • She could feel the pull of it, and over its taut span strength flowed into her, warm and sustaining.†   (source)
  • Adri's eyes widened, her temples pulling taut against her skull.†   (source)
  • Her watchfulness stretched her, made her taut and tense.†   (source)
  • It's quite a storm," I observed, grasping for words that would fill the taut silence.†   (source)
  • His receding hairline, his tinted aviators and his taut military torso gave him the wind-whipped look of an ex-pilot, a man who monitored delicate instruments at some test site in the Urals.†   (source)
  • Arms taut, backs stooped, the boys heave forward, their carts bulging.†   (source)
  • Looking at her now, at her clear gray eyes and her mouth as thin and taut as a bowstring, I feel a tug of fear.†   (source)
  • The midwife held the cord taut and told me where to cut.†   (source)
  • Annabeth looked at me like I was nuts, but in the next second, the air was filled with whistling sounds of ropes being snapped taut, canvases unfurling, and wooden pulleys creaking.†   (source)
  • She twists herself on the swing until the rope becomes taut, then she lifts her feet and it spins her around, slowly at first, then gaining speed.†   (source)
  • The Shade's narrow lips stretched tautly over his mouth as he laughed sharply.†   (source)
  • It was an action shot-women's volleyball-and Martha was bent horizontal to the floor, reaching, the palms of her hands in sharp focus, the tongue taut, the expression frank and competitive.†   (source)
  • Dustfinger inspected his reddened fingers and felt the taut skin.†   (source)
  • His taut finger encircling the trigger.†   (source)
  • The eyes of the nearly dead are redder than the blood that comes out of them, and it seems that their bones will tear through the skin of their taut faces at any minute.†   (source)
  • Her face was pale and taut with fear.†   (source)
  • They whirled again as canvas unfurled, lines grew taut, and somewhere a flywheel hummed into the ultrasonic.†   (source)
  • As he steps away from the van the leash pulls taut, stretching back inside, but no dog follows.†   (source)
  • There was a light puff of wind at my back that tousled my hair and caused the tarpaulin covering the wagon to pull taut for a moment.†   (source)
  • Her mouth seemed to have shrunken in size—perhaps because she held it taut, I don't know.†   (source)
  • But then his lips were taut.†   (source)
  • She spreads her fingers over the taut, enormous drum her middle has become, wondering where the baby's feet and hands are at this moment.†   (source)
  • Hekate deliberately turned her back on Flamel and folded her arms, then she glanced over her shoulder at Scathach, who immediately pulled the bowstring taut.†   (source)
  • The Bulldog raised his chin so high his jowls stretched taut.†   (source)
  • He slipped a hand over her taut, jeans-clad bottom with counterfeit lechery.†   (source)
  • She released a long, taut breath.†   (source)
  • Wrinkled skin was stretched taut over protruding cheekbones.†   (source)
  • Day did not link to day making a taut and jerking chain; rather, the moon rose over lapping waves.†   (source)
  • Her voice was as taut as a wire.†   (source)
  • I could see one vein, taut, sticking up in his neck.†   (source)
  • Getting closer, he sees that Da5id is taut and shivering, slick with perspiration.†   (source)
  • He was a taut fat man, tight-bellied and dark.†   (source)
  • He stretches the rubber band taut between his thumb and index finger.†   (source)
  • At first he thought it could be some kind of animal trap or a path marker ...until he saw the rope tied around it, pulled taut and stretching into the shadows, and realized that it was a metal stake driven into the tree.†   (source)
  • His mother's hair was pulled back tautly and a vein was pulsing in her temple and her eyes were red-rimmed from crying.†   (source)
  • Her dark hair was down around her shoulders and curling with the humidity, but her skin still looked as though it had been pulled taut over the sharp angles of her face.†   (source)
  • Every nerve in his body was taut, all his longing was concentrated in that cigarette butt—which meant more to him now, it seemed, than freedom itself—but he would never lower himself like that Fetiukov, he would never look at a man's mouth.†   (source)
  • A slight man with a taut face and slicked-back hair.†   (source)
  • Holding the other end of the loop taut with his left hand, he drew one side of the cord over the other with the middle finger of his right hand.†   (source)
  • Her body grew stiff and taut.†   (source)
  • His chain grew taut.†   (source)
  • Sho holds the head, pulling it taut.†   (source)
  • She was taut with denial and rage, and she drifted back to her village so she could die near her family.†   (source)
  • In his taut expression I saw complete concentration.†   (source)
  • Ten feet of soaring, plunging sailfish, it leaped, arched like a rainbow, dived, sank deep, tugged the line taut, rose, flew, fell, rose.†   (source)
  • I mean first I got to tell you how it was all the way ...I mean about the money I put in, Walter Lee ...WALTER: (With taut agitation now) What about the money you put in?†   (source)
  • Blade thin, six feet in height, straight as a sapling, bright eyed, taut; even motionless he seemed whippet quick.†   (source)
  • Cedric, sitting lightly on his taut blanket, looks across the dorm room at Rob Burton, who is slumped on his mother-made bed, looking right back.†   (source)
  • Pecola still held her stomach muscles taut and conserved her breath.†   (source)
  • He tightened his lips, kept his cheeks taut.†   (source)
  • They're still grinning at each other, but their voices have dropped so low and taut I have to sweep over closer to them with my broom to hear.†   (source)
  • The canvas is taut and nearly translucent—sunlight filters through the material and seams, illuminating the largest candy stand of all.†   (source)
  • He sat hunched, bitterly smiling, as always, his muscles taut as old nautical ropes in a hurricane.†   (source)
  • She was thin without the taut look of wiry people, and her printed voile dresses and flowered hats were as right for her as denim overalls for a farmer.†   (source)
  • The line was taut as a banjo string, and the merest tug would snap it on and blind the shivering quarry in a blaze of light.†   (source)
  • My throat hurt constantly, vocal cords taut to snapping.†   (source)
  • her hands squeezing then gliding to fray the taut line of his control.†   (source)
  • Reinventing his voice yet again, Mr. Moritz's third book, Sing, was written in a stripped-down language described in the New York Times as "taut as a drum.†   (source)
  • Her face was round and strangely taut.†   (source)
  • Holding it taut, she drew it back and forth across my face, pulling the hair out.†   (source)
  • A line of dark hair snakes over a taut stomach.†   (source)
  • Together at the card table, I could relax the taut watchfulness and caution that had governed my every move for the last three days and almost forget where I was, even as I shared every discovery that my new life offered.†   (source)
  • As he drove, the killer's nerves were taut and excited.†   (source)
  • She could pull her knees up a bit, but the harness and the foot restraints grew taut immediately.†   (source)
  • He has the body of an Olympic swimmer, taut and muscled.†   (source)
  • The introduction shows a page-wide photo of a forearm and hand squeezing pliers around a length of taut barbed wire strung beneath one of the towers.†   (source)
  • A length of twisted copper wire, gleaming dully in the first sunlight, was looped round his neck and ran taut across one forepaw to the head of a stout peg driven into the ground.†   (source)
  • He listens, his mouth a taut line, as Conrad explains.†   (source)
  • All week, throughout the funeral for Anys, and later, when he had looked in almost hourly on Mem, he had been thin-lipped and taut as a bowstring, as if struggling to contain a terrible rage.†   (source)
  • His line was strong arid made for heavy fish and he held it against his back until it was so taut that beads of water were jumping from it.†   (source)
  • The Shataiki remained silent, face taut, eyes unblinking.†   (source)
  • Haji Ali and Twaha pulled the cord taut and whipped it against the ground, leaving white lines on the packed earth where the walls of the school would stand.†   (source)
  • She pulls up her shirt to expose the pale, taut skin of her stomach, marred by a tangle of gouges.†   (source)
  • From the porch I could, at last, make out the three now taut lines, and then I caught sight of her washboards just above the water line.†   (source)
  • The dozen white-gloved hands waiting taut upon the silken ropes.†   (source)
  • His open shirt fell away from his taut frame, exposing the bandages on his chest and stomach.†   (source)
  • She wore a colorful wrap that draped off one shoulder, revealing an incredibly taut, muscular arm.†   (source)
  • I cried when I saw him bandaged in white, his arms taut in midair like a sea gull.†   (source)
  • His contours, taut and sinewy, are exactly the same.†   (source)
  • He rested his hand on Enrico's taut neck.†   (source)
  • Her face becomes taut.†   (source)
  • She bowed, her slender figure standing tautly straight but for the slow, formal movement of her head.†   (source)
  • Her hand had blown up so much that her fingers were like sausages in my palm, the skin so shiny and taut it looked ready to split.†   (source)
  • He had become both sullen and as taut as a stretched wire.†   (source)
  • When he pulled the string taut and affixed the rocket to it, he was excited.†   (source)
  • ELESIN has stood rock-still, his knuckles taut on the bars, his eyes glued to the body of his son.†   (source)
  • Rosalind became taut, ready for any movement.†   (source)
  • "Never interrupt me!" the wizard shouted, the veins in his neck taut and bulging and his face turning as red as blood.†   (source)
  • Sergeant Jelal welcomed us warmly, told us that we were joining a smart outfit, "best in the Fleet," in a taut ship, and didn't seem to notice our ear skulls.†   (source)
  • "Just got...battered around a little," she said in a voice taut with pain.†   (source)
  • I pushed her hands together above her head and held them there tightly with one hand, my free one searching the scallops of her ribs, her taut neck, now unfolding inside her needy mouth.†   (source)
  • But that he had done things far worse, and the effects were everywhere in the cloudless sky, on the dry brown hills, shrinking skin and hide taut over sharp bone.†   (source)
  • They all dropped as though attached by taut rope.†   (source)
  • Before them was an enormous tent, white and taut, the kind used for weddings and festivals.†   (source)
  • Ira's face was strained and taut and queerly defensive, as if she had been hurt and was wondering where the next blow would fall.†   (source)
  • The loose-fitting hospital attire concealed a body that was slender and taut, with narrow hips and the lightly muscled thighs and calves of a long-distance runner.†   (source)
  • He looked taut, his arms wiry rather than muscled, his legs downright scrawny.†   (source)
  • They join the two belts, and hold them taut between them.†   (source)
  • I admired the elegiac understatement of its streets, the whole taut containment of the lower city, fragrant in its vines, disciplined in its stones.†   (source)
  • Gradually his breathing became more regular, his body more relaxed, as he drifted from the taut pain of fever to the calm of sleep; Liz, watching him, sensed that the worst was over.†   (source)
  • Tom kept the rein taut, rode without trouble for several seconds.†   (source)
  • Samuel's face was taut with attention.†   (source)
  • A short novel then, also acclaimed, having to do with my wartime experiences—a taut, searing book eviscerating the military in a tragicomedy of the absurd.†   (source)
  • BRADY (Red-faced, his larynx taut, roaring stridently) As they would look to the mountains whence cometh our strength.†   (source)
  • Her mouth, usually agile and humorous, was drawn into a taut, colorless line.†   (source)
  • Her nerves were strung taut.†   (source)
  • As she started on the yams, the rope she had dropped wiggled and snapped taut.†   (source)
  • Their stern faces didn't brighten any but they seemed to become less taut, as if some great need had been partly satisfied.†   (source)
  • Mrs. Watts held it taut between her pink hands, and Mrs. Carson underscored each line slowly with her thimbled finger.†   (source)
  • Her face lost its childishness and became drawn and taut.†   (source)
  • He was well in control of himself, but as taut as wire.†   (source)
  • The veins in his neck bulged in taut cords.†   (source)
  • With them, straining at taut leashes, were two large dogs, their eyes glittering, their lips curled.†   (source)
  • The calm was like a sheet stretched taut in the wind.†   (source)
  • With one finger, she had poked the taut.†   (source)
  • Mr. Robert's mouth tightened like a rope pulled taut.†   (source)
  • "Carlisle, I —" He broke off and listened, his face taut with concentration for a few minutes.†   (source)
  • She looked so young in those pictures—her skin taut, her face thin.†   (source)
  • It was a taut leer, an evil thing, more threatening than a look of rage.†   (source)
  • Kohler's usually emotionless face was taut.†   (source)
  • Where she touched herself her flesh was taut and smooth.†   (source)
  • The leather straps pulled taut; the bit forced Bud's head up and forward.†   (source)
  • His shoulders rounded over his controller, slamming buttons, his forearms taut, veins visible.†   (source)
  • Lord Renly took a step back, taut as a bowstring.†   (source)
  • He released a strangled breath and pulled his shoulders taut.†   (source)
  • Thomas felt the bag going taut; then his head was pulled up.†   (source)
  • There was a light feeling in my head, fluttery and taut at the same time.†   (source)
  • He held his face taut as he raised his eyes to the corporal's face.†   (source)
  • Anxiety ran through his voice like a taut bowstring.†   (source)
  • The inch of skin showing on Hilly's neck grows taut.†   (source)
  • She plants her hands on her knees and stares right at me, her features taut with sudden ferocity.†   (source)
  • I keep my eyes focused on the horizon, a solid thin line, taut as a tightrope.†   (source)
  • I could feel the pull of her through the taut line.†   (source)
  • Vittoria, who had been silent, was suddenly airborne, her body taut with hatred.†   (source)
  • Correction: It's a taut cable, His sword won't cut it.†   (source)
  • Kris stammered, her back pressed against the wall, her expression taut with terror.†   (source)
  • The four vines tied to Alby below hung tautly around him.†   (source)
  • His voice was held taut by a cord of pain.†   (source)
  • When Mariam picked her up, she could feel her hip bone poking through the taut skin.†   (source)
  • He was coiled and taut, a mousetrap set to spring at the slightest touch.†   (source)
  • Its windows are missing and have been replaced by squares of multicolored fabric, pulled taut.†   (source)
  • He paused a taut moment and looked up at Langdon.†   (source)
  • Now the jibvines were beginning to pull taut as the thick leaves filled with wind.†   (source)
  • She was the same taut, undefeated woman.†   (source)
  • I listen for some life as I pull the sheets up taut on the bed.†   (source)
  • Ser Jaremy bristled, his face taut with anger.†   (source)
  • All those taut lines were moaning and wailing like an infernal stringed orchestra.†   (source)
  • The bark was hard and taut, like stretched parchment, and cool from its contact with the water.†   (source)
  • His face was pulled taut, his eyes turbulent.†   (source)
  • The sculpted hollows on either side of his taut, beautiful buns.†   (source)
  • Only the skin on her throat was taut and smooth, stretched over an enormous goiter.†   (source)
  • His face was taut, his breath shallow, but his expression held no hint of surprise.†   (source)
  • She grimaced, muscles pulling taut to her bones.†   (source)
  • He was weatherworn inside and out, as taut and rugged as the horses he ran wild on the mountain.†   (source)
  • Adri fixed a cold glare on her, lips pulled taut.†   (source)
  • As plain to feel as the heat on a hot day, or the tug of a fish on a taut line.†   (source)
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