tighten the belt

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

to reduce one's expenditure, accept a lower standard of living, or impose austerity measures in response to reduced income or financial difficulty; the metaphor refers to the physical act of cinching a belt tighter when one has lost weight, often due to not having enough to eat — connecting financial restraint to the bodily experience of hunger and deprivation; tightening the belt is used both at the level of individual households managing reduced income and at the level of governments adopting austerity budgets in response to fiscal pressure; the phrase carries an implicit acceptance of hardship as necessary and temporary, a stoical response to constrained circumstances that values prudence over protest