Related Clues:

• Hardly loose
• Pummeled (with), as punches
• Stretched to the max
• Like violin strings
• Having no slack
• Fully extended
• Didn't hold back
• Like a tuned piano string
• Like a high wire
• Like a newly-installed fan belt
• Far from slack
• With little slack
• Like a drumhead
• Heave
• Having no play, say