"firms" in the noun sense
1. firm, house, business firm
the members of a business organization that owns or operates one or more establishments
"he worked for a brokerage house"
"firms" in the verb sense
1. tauten, firm
become taut or tauter
"Your muscles will firm when you exercise regularly"
"the rope tautened"
2. tauten, firm
make taut or tauter
"tauten a rope"
Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)
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