(not) wrapped too tight

Question

Hello,

Do you know what does it mean to be 'wrapped too thight' or to be 'not wrapped too tight'?

I think that "not wrapped too tight" means "a little insane" or something like that, right?

In that case, does 'wrapped too tight' (or as an adjective - wrapped-too-tight) mean 'not spontaneous' and 'acting as a stuffed shirt'?

I'll be very grateful for any help,
Michal

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

And I'd be grateful for a little context, Michal.

MichalS · Answer

oh sorry, here are the sentences I found on the Internet:

- We have to admit that some seminarians, by temperament, are wrapped too tight and can't handle conflict. I wouldn't call them rigid, but brittle.

- The all-American Lang couple (Tim Robbins and Joan Cusack) quickly befriend tightly wound Faraday. Was, Faraday wonders when disturbing details surface, the rocket story a cover-up? Do the Lang's harbor high-power explosives and terrorist intentions? Are issues of national security at stake or is he simply wrapped too tight?

-I am not from one of those wrapped-too-tight families where emotions are never expressed and issues are never discussed.

- Eventually she picked up a thick pad of forms, scribbled furiously on it, tore off the green sheet and literally threw it at me. Literally.
"There!" She said loudly (5 decibels below 'shout' threshold).
"If you don't care what we're trying to accomplish up there why should we. You people are just going to do what you want anyway."

I felt like a bully and an *******, but I also got my permit and we did our climb. And I bet that ranger quit a long time ago. She was wrapped too tight to be dealing with the public.

-Your worry is not completely unfounded though. Sooner or later one of the countries with a leader who isn't wrapped too tight-and there are a LOT of them- will get the technology necessary to send nuclear tipped missiles on accurate flights.

OK, so in the last sentence 'being not wrapped too tight' means probably 'mentally ill' as the context is quite clear. I'm not quite sure how to explain the meaning of 'being wrapped too tight', though. It has perhaps multiple meanings, etc: nervous, edgy, rigid, oversensitive (???). Please help me with that!

Michal

Mister Micawber · Answer

Yes, I don't think a simple, one-dimensional definition is possible. Michal, but I think you are close to it. As I perceive it, wrapped too tight = uptight.

Uptight = Slang 1. Tense; nervous. 2. Financially pressed; destitute. 3. Outraged; angry. 4. Rigidly conventional, as in manners, opinions, and tastes: “She sees this headlong, headstrong, plunge into worldliness as a protracted process of shucking the shame of her uptight upbringing” (James Wolcott, Vanity Fair June 1992).

Adj. Frigid, conventional, stressed. [Orig. U.S.] {Informal}; rigidly conventional <an uptight conservative>

MichalS · Answer

Hi Mister Micawber,

Thank you for your help!

I guess I didn't know this word before, or it slipped my memory somehow. Anyway, its meaning definitely suits 'wrapped too tight' and both look similar even.

By the way, isn't it an interesting linguistic peculiarity when an expression (being wrapped too tight) and what may seem to be its negation (being NOT wrapped too tight) are not antonymous but refer to plainly different human features?
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EDITED: Well, to make things clear, I'm not saying that they are not antonymous in all their meanings but 'not wrapped too tight' means, among other things, 'crazy', 'loco', etc., while you don't say that somebody is 'wrapped too tight' when you mean he is mentelly sound, do you?
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If anyone else has any comment on this or is able to support our presumptions with reference to this expression, please take part in the discussion.

Michal

Anonymous · Answer

My understanding is the expression comes from the wire windings around an electric motor. If the windings are "not wrapped tight" the motor will spin out of control, hence the view that is someone is "not wrapped too tight" they are out of control.

Anonymous · Answer

Hi

I found this phrase in Patricia Cornwell's "The Scarpetta Factor" (US, 2009) - chapter 12, about ten pages in

I don't think "stuffed shirt" is quite right - that means someone who acts in a seemingly unsociable way because of a conservative or very moral attitude

"Tightly wrapped" is more of a street-slang term, meaning "obsessed, or tense, tied up with your own thoughts or concerns". A "wrap", by the way, is a unit of illegal drug for sale; and "wrapped up" is a very old term. meaning that your attention is totally taken up by something

Regards, Dave

Anonymous · Answer

I know that in the south when someone is "not wrapped too tight" it's a idiom meaning that the person/people who are being referred to are not mentally right or "just plain stupid "as one would say in Texas.  It's a little bit derogatory term.

Anonymous · Answer

Someone with a Type-A personality who is just a little anxious, uptight, overly formal in their thinking. (In the military we often say this of service academy grads (west pointer, middies, or zoomies)

Anonymous · Answer

It’s always been my understanding that wrapped too tight means you’re high-strung, nervous or anxious.

(not) wrapped too tight

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