Money is tight, to a point (5)
I believe the answer is:
means
'money' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'tight to a point' is the wordplay.
'tight' becomes 'mean' ('mean' can be a synonym of 'tight').
'to a point' becomes 's' (S is an example**).
'mean'+'s'='MEANS'
'is' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for means that I've seen before include "considerable income" , "Income, wealth" , "Indicates" , "Method - financial resources" , "Designs" .)