Possible Clues:

• Closed more firmly
• With hard time coming in, fierce person becomes more mean
• More than half-seas over, perhaps, but less on the loose
• More constricted
• More then one over the eight, so less loose
• Merry monarch becomes meaner
• More drumlike, proverbially
• Like a size 8 blouse vis-à-vis a size 10
• Magician's command to a person tying ropes
• High tension? With wild animal round about, you'll get even more tense