tautened

The main-sheet slacked and dipped, then shot over our heads after the boom and tautened with a crash on the traveller.

The King of the Greeks 2010

The tree, deeper in the water, was travelling faster, and the painter tautened as the boat took the tow.

Chapter VIII 2010

The tow-line had now tautened, at right angles to the two boats, and the predicament was laughable.

YELLOW HANDKERCHIEF 2010

The main-sheet tautened with a brisk rattling of the blocks, the boom uplifted, the sail bellied out, and the Reindeer heeled over - over, and over, till the lee-rail went under, the cabin windows went under, and the bay began to pour in over the cockpit rail.

White and Yellow 2010

Many times, in the course of the day, alertly and nonchalantly, almost with a quizzical knowingness, Jerry cocked his head at the mainsail when it made sudden swooping movements or slacked and tautened its crashing sheet-gear.

CHAPTER III 2010

Oofty-Oofty took a turn on a bitt, the rope tautened, and the Ghost, lunging onward, jerked the cook to the surface.

Chapter 21 2010

He shifted his feet slightly, tautened his muscles with a tentative pull, then relaxed again, questing for a perfect adjustment of all the levers of his body.

Chapter III 2010

Daylight's muscles tautened a second time, and this time in earnest, until steadily all the energy of his splendid body was applied, and quite imperceptibly, without jerk or strain, the bulky nine hundred pounds rose from the door and swung back and forth, pendulum like, between his legs.

Chapter III 2010

When Gus began to slide-as he soon must-would he, Hazard, be able to take in the slack and then meet the shock as the other tautened the rope and darted toward the plunge?

DUTCH COURAGE 2010

She quickly jerked her head away, but not before his alert gaze had swept the tautened skin around her eyes and the drained look of her complexion.

Western Man Janet Dailey 2011