Meaning of tie in English

tie

verb

/taɪ/ us

/taɪ/

present participle tying | past tense and past participle tied

tie verb (FASTEN)

to fasten together two ends of a piece of string or other long, thin material, or to (cause to) hold together with a long, thin piece of string, material, etc.:

Could you tie this piece of string for me?

This skirt ties at the waist.

tie something in something She tied the ribbon tightly in a bow/knot.

tie something back I tie my hair back when it's hot.

tie something (up) Tie (up) your shoelaces, or you'll trip over them.

More examplesFewer examples

We tied balloons and streamers to the ceiling ready for the party.
A sailor threw a rope ashore and we tied the boat to a post.
She wrapped the present and tied it with ribbon.
With his feet tied together he could only move in little hops.
Where's the cord that ties back the curtains?

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Fastening and tying

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tie verb (RELATE)

[ T ]

to relate to or connect to:

be tied to Is the allergy tied to dairy products, for example?

tie something up with something Can you tie his behaviour up with anything that's happened recently?

The Republicans are trying to tie the funding up with this bill.

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Linking and relating

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tie verb (FINISH EQUAL)

[ I ]

to finish at the same time or score the same number of points, etc. in a competition as someone or something else:

tie (for) Jane and I tied (for first place) in the spelling test.

tie with We tied with a team from the south in the championships.

Compare

equalize

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Winning, losing & scoring in sport

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Losing and being defeated

tie verb (MUSIC)

[ T ]

to write a curved line over or under two musical notes to show that they must be played as if they are one note:

Bartók's score contains many long tied notes.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Technical music terms

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Idioms

tie someone (up) in knots
tie the knot
tied to your mother's/wife's apron strings

Phrasal verbs

tie someone down
tie (someone/something) down
tie (something) in
tie (something) in with something
tie someone to something/someone
tie someone up
tie something up

tie

noun [ C ]

/taɪ/ us

/taɪ/

tie noun [C] (FASTENING)

(US also necktie)

a long, thin piece of material that is worn under a shirt collar, especially by men, and tied in a knot at the front:

He always wears a jacket and tie to work.

Krisztián Fodi/EyeEm/GettyImages

any piece of string, plastic, metal, etc. that is used to fasten or hold together something:

Can you see the ties for the rubbish bags in the cupboard?

More examplesFewer examples

Most evenings there's a party and the dress code is strict - black tie only.
He loosened his tie.
He wasn't wearing a tie and his shirt was open at the neck.
Do you suppose it would be offending against good taste to wear a patterned tie with my striped shirt?
Giulio was looking quite presentable in a suit and tie.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Hats & scarves

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Fastening and tying

tie noun [C] (CONNECTION)

ties C2 [ plural ]

the friendly feelings that people have for other people, or special connections with places:

family ties Family ties are weaker if you move a long way away.

tie noun [C] (EQUAL FINISH)

a situation in which two or more people finish at the same time or score the same number of points:

tie for It's a tie for first place.

They have changed the scoring system because there have been too many ties.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Winning, losing & scoring in sport

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Losing and being defeated

tie noun [C] (MUSIC)

a curved line written over or under musical notes to show that they must be played as if they are one note:

The minim is joined to its neighbouring crotchet with a tie.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Technical music terms

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(Definition of tie from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

tie | American Dictionary

tie

verb

/tɑɪ/

present participle tying | past tense and past participle tied

tie verb (FASTEN)

Add to word list Add to word list

[ I/T ]

to fasten together two pieces of string or other long, thin material, or to hold together with string, rope, etc.:

[ I ] This dress ties at the back.

[ T ] She tied the ribbon in a bow/knot.

tie verb (FINISH EQUAL)

[ I ]

to finish at the same time or score the same number of points as someone or something else in a competition:

Jane and I tied for first place.

The score is tied (up) at 3 to 3.

Idiom

tie the knot

Phrasal verbs

tie something in with something
tie something to something
tie someone to something
tie down someone/something
tie down someone
tie up something
tie up something

tie

noun [ C ]

/tɑɪ/

tie noun [C] (connection)

a connection or relationship between people, or a connection a person has with a place, interest, activity, etc.:

a tie to the past

Gray had close ties with other powerful politicians.

He is a businessman and developer with strong ties to Beijing.

tie noun [C] (PIECE OF MATERIAL)

(also necktie)

a long, thin piece of material worn esp. by men which fits under a shirt collar, is tied in a knot, and hangs down the front of the shirt:

a silk tie

(also necktie)

A tie is also any piece of string, plastic, etc., used to hold together something:

Can you find the ties for the garbage bags?

tie noun [C] (EQUAL FINISH)

the fact of finishing at the same time or scoring the same number of points as someone or something else in a competition:

It’s a tie for first place.

(Definition of tie from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

tie | Business English

tie

verb

/taɪ/ us

tying | tied | tied

Add to word list Add to word list

[ T ]

to connect two things in a way that limits other possibilities:

tie sth to sth We now have the option of tying funding to environmental conditions.

Pay and promotions in the organization are tied to performance.

tie sb to sth Many of the bank's employees were tied to their jobs because they were worried about losing their pension schemes.

[ I or T ]

to have the same score or level in a game, competition, or comparison, or to make the scores the same:

tie for first/second/last, etc. place Frederick and Fairfax counties each reported 4.2% job growth, tying for 18th place in the US as a whole.

tie the score/record The temperature in the afternoon hit 97 degrees, tying the record for June 2.

Phrasal verbs

tie in
tie sb in
tie sb into sth
tie sth up
tie sb up
tie up with sb/sth

tie

noun

/taɪ/ us

[ C, usually plural ]

a personal or financial connection or relationship between people, organizations, countries, etc.:

ties with sb/sth He makes no apologies for his ties with the failed bank.

The two leading bidders have close ties with American media groups.

break/cut/sever ties One of the world's biggest hotel operators severed its ties with the popular travel website.

diplomatic/economic/political ties The president urged governments worldwide to break diplomatic ties with the oppressive regime.

[ C ] WORKPLACE

( US also necktie)

a long thin piece of material that is worn under a shirt collar, especially by men, and tied in a knot at the front:

Men are expected to wear a suit and tie in the office.

(Definition of tie from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of tie

tie

Moreover, such priming effects are tied to representations in the brain.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The actors are able to reach common agreement on their preferences and are open to ties with other parties.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The collective results suggest that neural populations, rather than the individual cell, determine the spatial proper ties of its receptive field.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

There is a fairly straightforward answer to this question, which is intimately tied to their concept of iteration.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

An individual is concerned over a triple of alternatives if these alternatives are not all tied in this individual's preference ordering.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In both countries older women generally had more close ties than older men and received more kinds of support.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Rather, we should admit that the ties are somewhat different in different contexts.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

To begin, venues are directly tied to policy solutions, and advocacy groups do have preferences in this regard.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Rather, moral is referring to the form taken by ties which bind individuals and groups in social relations.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In this rubric, the political is released from a necessary tie to centralized governance and simply represents itself as a social production.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Others are so closely tied to elected politicians that they lack substantial independence.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The study indicates that the intensity-dependent phase of the atomic dipole should play a major role in the spatial coherence proper ties of harmonic emission.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

When troubles arose, the ministry arranged mergers, utilizing its informal ties with banks.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

This peripatetic round of appointments made it highly unlikely that he would develop lasting ties with townspeople.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

He advocated nurturing the sociocultural and political orientations he believed were tied to the identity of the state.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with tie

tie

These are words often used in combination with tie.

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.

blue tie

Then there was a further transformation—a blue tie with red polka dots; then a blue tie; then the final transmogrification took place—the colour purple.

From the

Hansard archive

Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0

close tie

Furthermore, logotherapy assumes that life may have meaning even at the end of a close tie.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

four-way tie

There is a four-way tie for most wins in this category.

From

Wikipedia

This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.

See all collocations with tie