"keep a tight eye on"

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Sat Mar 13 21:50:00 UTC 2010


Means to "watch constantly or continually."  Covered, I suppose, by OED
_tight_, def. 5, but the dictionary has no record of the phrase, which gets
43,000 Googlits and Google Book hits back to 1834.

I just heard it on VH1's _Sober House with Dr. Drew Pinsky_.  A California
thing?

(Cf. John Wayne: "Now listen up, and listen tight."   Also in, e.g.,
Alcott's _Little Men_.)



JL
--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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