commercial enterprises organized and financed on a scale large enough to influence social and political policies; "big business is growing so powerful it is difficult to regulate it effectively"
the difference in value over a period of time of a country's imports and exports of merchandise; "a nation's balance of trade is favorable when its exports exceed its imports"
(with `in') guardianship over; in divorce cases it is the right to house and care for and discipline a child; "my fate is in your hands"; "too much power in the president's hands"; "your guests are now in my custody"; "the mother was awarded custody of the children"
(law) an explanation of the fundamental reasons (especially an explanation of the working of some device in terms of laws of nature); "the rationale for capital punishment"; "the principles of internal-combustion engines"
affected by scarcity and expensive to borrow; "tight money"; "a tight market"
packed closely together; "the stood in a tight little group"; "hair in tight curls"; "the pub was packed tight"
of such close construction as to be impermeable; "a tight roof"; "warm in our tight little house"
closely constrained or constricted or constricting; "tight skirts"; "he hated tight starched collars"; "fingers closed in a tight fist"; "a tight feeling in his chest"
securely or solidly fixed in place; rigid; "the bolts are tight"
set so close together as to be invulnerable to penetration; "in tight formation"; "a tight blockade"
extremely hot; "the fervent heat...merely communicated a genial warmth to their half-torpid systems"- Nathaniel Hawthorne; "set out...when the fervid heat subsides"- Frances Trollope