tighten
v.v. to make something more strict or to close a gap. In business, it often means spending less money or making rules harder to break.
v. to make a rule, law, or security system more restrictive or effective; to reduce the availability of money in an economy. Transitive when applied to policy or physical objects.
The bank decided to tighten its lending rules.
The government plans to tighten fiscal policy to control rising inflation and stabilize the national currency.
Central banks often tighten monetary policy by raising interest rates, which effectively reduces the total money supply and slows down aggressive economic expansion.
Synchronically equivalent to tight + -en, but actually derived from Middle English tighten, from Old English tyhtan, thus originally unrelated to tight (Old English *þiht).
The verb is transitive and typically takes objects like 'security', 'rules', 'controls', or 'policy'.
tighten up of the rulestightening of the rulesLearners often use the base verb form where the gerund 'tightening' is required as a noun.