tie

Noun

tie (plural ties)

1. A knot; a fastening.
2. A knot of hair, as at the back of a wig.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Young to this entry?)

3. A necktie (item of clothing consisting of a strip of cloth tied around the neck). See also bow tie, black tie.
4. The situation in which two or more participants in a competition are placed equally.

   It's two outs in the bottom of the ninth, tie score.

5. A twist tie, a piece of wire embedded in paper, strip of plastic with ratchets, or similar object which is wound around something and tightened.
6. A strong connection between people or groups of people; a bond.

   the sacred ties of friendship or of duty; the ties of allegiance

   • Young

     No distance breaks the tie of blood.

   • 2004, Peter Bondanella, Hollywood Italians: Dagos, Palookas, Romeos, Wise Guys, and Sopranos, chapter 4, 231–232:

     The film ends with the colorful deaths of Nico's enemies after he thwarts their attempts to assassinate a U.S. Senator investigating ties between drug dealers and the CIA.

7. (construction) A structural member firmly holding two pieces together.

   Ties work to maintain structural integrity in windstorms and earthquakes.

8. (rail transport, US) A horizontal wooden or concrete structural member that supports and ties together rails.
9. (cricket) The situation at the end of all innings of a match where both sides have the same total of runs (different from a draw).
10. (sports, Britain) A meeting between two players or teams in a competition.

    The FA Cup third round tie between Liverpool and Cardiff was their first meeting in the competition since 1957.

11. (music) A curved line connecting two notes of the same pitch denoting that they should be played as a single note with the combined length of both notes (not to be confused with a slur).
12. (statistics) One or more equal values or sets of equal values in the data set.
13. (surveying) A bearing and distance between a lot corner or point and a benchmark or iron off site.
14. (graph theory) connection between two vertices.

Verb

tie (third-person singular simple present ties, present participle tying, simple past and past participle tied)

1. (transitive) To twist (a string, rope, or the like) around itself securely.

   Tie this rope in a knot for me, please.

   Tie the rope to this tree.

2. (transitive) To form (a knot or the like) in a string or the like.

   Tie a knot in this rope for me, please.

3. (transitive) To attach or fasten (one thing to another) by string or the like.

   Tie him to the tree.

   • Fairfax

     In bond of virtuous love together tied.

4. (transitive) To secure (something) by string or the like.

   Tie your shoes.

   • Dryden

     Not tied to rules of policy, you find / Revenge less sweet than a forgiving mind.

5. (transitive or intransitive) To have the same score or position as another in a competition or ordering.

   They tied for third place.

   They tied the game.

6. (US, transitive) To have the same score or position as (another) in a competition or ordering.

   He tied me for third place.

7. (music) To unite (musical notes) with a line or slur in the notation.

Related terms

• tie stille

Usage notes

When combined with ĉi, the adverbial particle of proximity, tie ĉi means here.

Derived terms

• ĉi tie, tie ĉi
• tiea
• tieulo

Related terms

• kie
• ie
• nenie

Declension

Derived terms

Usage notes

• English transcriptions of Mandarin speech often fail to distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without the appropriate indication of tone.