Forms: α. 1 téaʓ, téʓ, tǽʓ, 3 teȝ, teiȝ, 5 tey, 6 Sc. (pl.) teis, (5, 9 dial. tee). β. 5–9 tye, 7 ty, (pl. tigges, tighes), 6– tie. [OE. teáh, tǽʓ fem., Anglian tǽʓ, later téʓ = ON. taug fem., rope:—OTeut. *tauʓ-ā, -o str, fem., f. second grade of the verb-stem teuh- : taun- : tuh : see TEE v.1 The β-forms are assimilated to, or formed from, TIE v.]
1. That with which anything is tied; a cord, band, or the like, used for fastening something; a knot, noose, or ligature; a natural formation of this kind, a ligament (quot. 1659); esp. an ornamental knot or bow of ribbon, etc.
α. a. 800. Cynewulf, Crist, 733. He … cyning inne ʓebond … fyrnum teaʓum.
a. 1000. Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 210/36. Collarium, sweorclaþ, uel teʓ, uel sal.
c. 1205. Lay., 20998. Heo wolden … teien heom to-gadere mid guldene teȝen.
c. 1290. S. Eng. Leg., I. 308/301. A teiȝ doggue þat is in strongue teiȝe.
1537. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., VI. 335. Thre elnis canves to lyne the teis of the mulatis.
1825. Brockett, N. C. Words, Tee, or Tie, a hair-rope with which to shackle cows in milking.
β. 1601–2. Shuttleworths’ Acc. (Chetham Soc.), 141. ij tigges for the maydes to mylke the kyne with, ijd. Ibid. (1602), 142. To a power man for vj tighes for the kyne, iiijd.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 406. Intercept an arterie with a tye, and the part below the tye … will not beate.
1659. Macallo, Can. Physick, 54. The tyes and ligaments of the brain.
1817. J. Bradbury, Trav. Amer., 60. The horse … broke his tie, and gallopped off.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., xlix. Great formal wigs, with a tie behind.
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown, I. iii. Putting impossible buttons and ties in the middle of his back.
2. Naut. a. A rope or chain by which a yard is suspended. See quot. 1841.
α. 1465. Mann. & Househ. Exp. (Roxb.), 200. For ij. teyis [for the ship] weyinge vij. stone,… xiij.s. ix.d.
1496. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., I. 300. Making of a bonat and the lek [leech] to it, with smal takil and a tee. Ibid. (1511), IV. 300. Item … for hed towis to the gret schip … tua cordalis, x trosis, iij teis.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, V. xiv. 6. Than all sammyn,… Did heis thar saill, and trossit doun ther teis.
β. 1485–6. Naval Accts. Hen. VII. (1896), 13. An hauser for a tye weying D lb. Ibid., 36. Halfe tyes short … ij. Bowe Sesynges.
1611. Cotgr., Estails.… tyes; the strings or ropes of sayles.
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., v. 21. The Ties are the ropes by which the yards doe hang, and doe carry up the yards when wee straine the Halyards.
1762–9. Falconer, Shipwr., II. 318. While some above the yard o’erhaul the tye.
1829. Marryat, F. Mildmay, iv. I … regained my perch by the topsail-tie.
1841. R. H. Dana, Seaman’s Man., Tye, a rope connected with a yard, to the other end of which a tackle is attached for hoisting.
b. A mooring-bridle.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Ties, an old name for mooring bridles.
1883. Fisheries Exhib. Catal., 24. White Manilla Boat Tie.
3. A knot of hair; a pigtail; also short for TIE-WIG. ? Obs.
1728. Young, Love Fame, II. 225. The well-swoln tyes an equal homage claim.
1742. Richardson, Pamela, IV. 64. So I think, cries the other; and tosses his Tye behind him, with an Air … of Contempt.
1760. Foote, Minor, II. Wks. 1799, I. 259. Some recommended a tye, others a bag: one mention’d a bob.
1817. Shelley, Rev. Islam, VI. xxxiii. Cythna’s glowing arms, and the thick ties Of her soft hair.
4. A neck-tie, a cravat.
1761. Churchill, Rosciad, Poems, 1763, I. 5. Thrice he twirl’s his Tye—thrice strok’d his band.
1860. Tristram, Gt. Sahara, xx. 344. Seated in white gloves and ties at the soirée of Madame R—.
1862. ‘Shirley’ (J. Skelton), Nugæ Crit., i. 6. Here … That badge of servitude, the white tie, is unloosed.
1895. ‘F. Anstey,’ Lyre & Lancet, I. 7. He’ll come down to dinner in a flannel shirt and no tie.
1897. Ld. Tennyson, Mem. Tennyson, II. 222. Adorned by his accustomed blue tie.
1910. Record-Journal (Meriden, CT), 5 May, 10/3. Paisley ties on tailored blouses.
5. A kind of low shoe fastened with a tie or lace.
1826. Mrs. McNeill, Lett., in Mem. Sir J. McNeill, vi. (1910). Two pair black satin slippers,… two pair neat walking ties.
1904. Westm. Gaz., 15 April, 10/2. What we call Oxford Ties, which is a brogue shoe, is a favourite form … for walking purposes.
6. gen. Something that connects or unites two or more things in some way; a link. (See also 8.)
1711. J. Greenwood, Eng. Gram., 152. Called the subjunctive mood because it is added to the first sentence by some Cople or Tye.
1830. Herschel, Stud. Nat. Phil., II. vii. (1851), 193. Solid substance[s] retained by a force or united by a tie.
1857. Miller, Elem. Chem. (1862), III. 52. The tie between the two typical groups being … the dibasic radicle (C2O2).
b. Mus. A curved line placed over or under two notes on the same degree, to indicate that the sound is to be sustained (not repeated): = BIND sb. 1 c: cf. LIGATURE sb. 4.
Also placed over or under two or more notes to be performed legato, or to be sung to one syllable; in this case now called a slur (SLUR sb.3 4).
1656. M. Locke, Little Consort, Treble, Pref. In printing of Tyes, Holds, Slurrs.
1662. Playford, Skill Mus., I. xi. (1674), 35. A Tye is of two uses, first, when the Time is broken … in the middle of the Note, it is usual to Tye two Minims, or a Minim and a Crotchet together. The second sort of Tye is, when two or more Notes are to be sung to one Syllable, or two Notes or more are to be plaid with once drawing the bow on the Viol.
1686. New Method to Learn to Sing, 54. A Tye thus ̑, over two or more Notes, signifying that they must be sung to one Syllable, or struck with one motion of the Bow upon an Instrument.
1848. [see SLUR sb.3 4].
7. Arch., etc. A beam or rod used to ‘tie’ or bind together two parts of a building or other structure by counteracting a tensile strain which tends to draw them apart.
1793. W. H. Marshall, W. England (1796), II. 340. The ties, in this case, are large oak floor-beams.
1855. Act 18 & 19 Vict., c. 122. Sched. i. The height of every topmost story shall be measured from the level of its floor up to the underside of the tie of the roof.
1861. Smiles, Engineers, II. 183. The eight ribs were firmly connected together by braces and ties.
1869. Sir E. J. Reed, Shipbuild., i. 8. Some of the longitudinal ties of this ship were broken at the bulkheads.
b. U.S. A (transverse) railway sleeper.
(The transverse or ‘cross’ sleepers serve as ties to keep the rails from spreading under the lateral strain of the wheels.)
1857. U.S. Patent Office Rep., II. 116. The tie and pedestals cast in one piece, the chairs so constructed as to fit in or on said pedestals.
1869. Daily News, 7 Oct. Fires … fed by piles of old sleepers, or ties as they are called here.
1881. Times, 9 Sept. Heaps of ‘ties’ (the sleepers of the old world) piled up by the side of the road.
1890. Railroad Gaz. (U. S.), 12 Dec., 855/1. The requirements for ties, as you know, comprise the largest consumption of wood in this country.
8. fig. Something that ties or binds in a figurative or abstract sense. a. Something that makes fast or secures; a security; something figured as a band or knot with which things are tied. rare.
a. 1555. Latimer, in Foxe, A. & M. (1563), 1313/1. They haue charitie in such sure tie that they cannot lose it.
1605. Shaks., Macb., III. i. 17. Let your Highnesse Command vpon me, to the which my duties Are with a most indissoluble tye For euer knit.
1670. Cotton, Espernon, III. x. 531. He had concluded the Marriage…, a match that was to be the main tye of this Accommodation.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., II. ix. Confusedly bound in memory’s ties.
b. Something that restrains or obliges; a restraint, constraint; † something that enables one to restrain another, a hold upon a person (obs.); an obligation, a bond (of duty or the like).
1596. Drayton, Leg., iii. 80. Which soone upon Him got so sure a Tye, As no misfortune e’r could it remove.
1621. Elsing, Debates Ho. Lords (Camden), 45. The agents complained that they wanted a ty uppon the sylkemen. The bonde was advysed by others.
1641. Ld. J. Digby, Sp. in Ho. Com., 21 April, 6. I was … under tye of Secrecy.
1754. Sherlock, Disc. (1759), I. xiii. 359. Bound … by … the Ties of Moral Duty.
1768. Woman of Honor, III. 59. Love … flies with disdain from everything that has an air of tie, or constraint.
1835. J. H. Newman, Par. Serm. (1837), I. xv. 229. They do not like the tie of religion.
c. Something that connects or unites; a bond of union; a uniting principle; a link, connection: usually with implication of mutual obligation (cf. b), in reference to social relations or the like.
a. 1625. Fletcher, Bloody Brother, IV. i. Mercy becomes a prince, and guards him best; Awe and affrights are never ties of love.
1629. Carliell, Deserv. Favourite, 82. To procure her bondage; For such she did account all ties of marriage Made by the parents without the childs consent.
1733. P. Shaw, trans. Bacon’s De Sap. Vet., III. ii. Expl., Philos. Wks. I. 591. The Bonds of Affinity, which are the Links and Ties of Nature.
1775. Pennsylvania Gazette, 12 July, 1/1. Friends, Countrymen, and Brethren! By these, and by every appellation, that may designate the ties which bind US to each other, we entreat your serious attention to this our second attempt to prevent their dissolution.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F. (1869), III. l. 149. We are bound to each other by the ties of honour and interest.
1874. Green, Short Hist., i. § 1. 1. The ties of a common blood, and a common speech.
1875. Whitney, Life Lang., 271. There is no necessary tie between race and language.
d. Obligation of constant attendance; restraint of freedom. ? dial. or colloq.
Mod. She finds the children a great tie on her. The place is easy, but you wouldn’t like the tie.
¶ To ride in tie: perversion of to ride and tie (see RIDE v. 22), tie being app. taken in sense ‘connection.’
1908. Academy, 8 Feb., 434/2. He rode all the way in tie with his black slave.
9. The fact or method of tying; the condition of being tied, bound, or united. (In quot. 1865 ? a bargain settled, a sale.)
1718. Free-thinker, No. 66, ¶ 7. I understand the decent Tye of a Cravat.
1793. Smeaton, Edystone L., § 82. The tye was as good at the bottom as at the top.
1865. Daily Tel., 22 Aug., 6/5. The market expenses … are little enough: 2d a head toll, and 11/2d ‘a tie,’ as the phrase is—31/2d, that is, per beast sold in the market.
b. Mining. = TEE sb.1 3.
1747. Hooson, Miner’s Dict., O iij. He that comes first to the Pee, will take it, be he the older or younger, and he will make the other a way out if possible he can, otherwise if he cannot then it is called a Tye.
1851. [see TEE sb.1 3].
c. In silk hand-loom weaving: The tying together of a combination of heddle-strings, so as to move a series of warp-strings together.
1831. G. R. Porter, Silk Manuf., 297. Every variation in the order of succession of the harness used in weaving or in the weavers’ language, every different tie, produces a different pattern.
d. In plastering: = KEY sb.1 10 c.
1873. E. Spon, Workshop Receipts, Ser. I. 121/2. After the coat is laid on, it is scored in diagonal directions with a scratcher … to give it a key or tie for the coat that is to follow it.
10. Equality between two or more competitors or the sides in a match or contest; a match in which this occurs, a drawn match; a dead heat. Hence, to play off, shoot off, etc., a tie, to resolve or determine a tie, by playing another match.
1680. [see TIE v. 7].
1736. in Waghorn, Cricket Scores (1899), 16. A great single-wicket match … the country men got but 6, which made it a tie.
1837. T. Hook, Jack Brag, iii. To see the ties shot off of the great pigeon match.
1837. Vermont Gazette, 21 Nov., 1/5. After 40 or 50 ballotings, for President by the corporation of Baltimore resulting in a tie each time, it was agreed to choose by lot.
1844. Disraeli, Coningsby, VIII. iii. The Government count on the seat, though with the new Registration ’tis nearly a tie.
1881. T. Hardy, Laodicean, II. vi. We are bracketed—it’s a tie. The judges say there is no choice between the designs.
Hence, b. A deciding match played after a draw; also, a match played between the victors in previous matches or heats. (See also cup-tie s.v. CUP sb. 13 c.)
1895. Westm. Gaz., 24 Sept. The … boys prefer the cup ties to the Church Catechism. Ibid. (1904), 22 April, 12/1. There is something impressive even to the unathletic man in these annual Cup-tie figures.
1905. Daily Chron., 17 April, 3/7. Probably the Cup-‘tie’ has been evolved from the phrase ‘shooting off’ or ‘playing off a tie’ after two competitors have ‘tied.’ The match between those who stand on a level gradually gets regarded as itself the ‘tie.’
