Also 6–9 tire, 6–8 tyre, (6 teare, 7 tere, 7–8 teer, 8 tear). [Orig. tire, a. F. tire, in OF. (c. 1210 in Godef.) ‘suite, sequence, range, rank, order’: cf. tire à tire in succession, one after another, f. tirer to draw, elongate. The phonetic history of the forms teare, tere, teer, is obscure. Pl. after a numeral sometimes tier.]
1. A row, rank, range, course; usually one of a series of rows placed one above another, or at least rising each above the preceding one; e.g., tiers of galleries, shelves, boxes in a theater, or seats on a sloping floor; also of banks of oars in ancient ships or boats; see also b, c.
1569. Stocker, trans. Diod. Sic., III. viii. 114/2. Ten gallies of fiue tier of ores.
a. 1625. Fletcher, Bloody Brother, II. ii. I have ballast for their bellies, if they eat a gods name, Let them have ten tire of teeth a piece, I care not.
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., vii. 33. Caske … stowed tier aboue tier.
1686. J. Dunton, Lett. New-Eng. (1867), 35. He has three Tere of Teeth in his Chaps.
1720. in New Eng. Hist. & Gen. Reg. (1875), XXIX. 288. Eastward of the first tear of lots.
1722. Conn. Col. Rec. (1872), VI. 311. The northermost tier of the three tier of lots lying next to Midletown.
1730. A. Gordon, Maffei’s Amphith., 203. The … Stones … which form’d the first Tyre or Belt thereof.
1743. Lond. & Country Brew., III. (ed. 2), 182. The Worts now run swiftly into a single Teer of Backs.
1787. M. Cutler, in Life, etc. (1888), I. 311. There are two tiers of galleries, and the [meeting-]house was very full.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., II. 358. It consists of three bridges, or tires of arches one above another.
1837. C. Hillyard, Pract. Farm. & Grazing (ed. 2), 102. Wheat grows in tiers, up the ear, each tier commonly containing three grains; in this extraordinary ear, each had six grains.
1844. Ld. Houghton, Palm Leaves, 1 Above the towers of tripple tire.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., 346. A round of grape-shot consists of three tiers of cast-iron balls, generally three in a tier.
1873. Symonds, Grk. Poets, ix. 280. The new theatre in Athens contained 30,000 spectators seated in semicircular tiers scooped out of the rock.
b. A row of guns or gun-ports in a man-of-war or (as in quot. 1573) in a fort.
1573. in Calr. Scott. Pap., IV. 475. Davyes towre … a courten with vj cannons … in loopes of stone … behynd the same standes another teare of ordina[nce] lyke xvj foote clym above the other.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., II. 54. [A] man of war … carrying two tyre of Ordonance.
a. 1647. Pette, in Archæologia, XII. 283. The … distance of the lower tire of ports from the water.
1722. De Foe, Col. Jack (1840), 322. A good tier of guns kept the rest at a distance.
1813. Byron, Corsair, III. xv. She bears her down majestically near, Speed on her prow, and terror in her tier.
c. A rank of pipes in an organ controlled by one stop (see RANK sb.1 1, quots. 1811, 1881).
1828–32. in Webster.
1880. E. J. Hopkins, in Grove, Dict. Mus., II. 580/2. Although the number of pipes to each key thus continued to be added to, no means was devised for silencing or selecting any of the several ranks or tiers.
d. transf. and fig. Rank, grade; stratum.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. iv. 35. Such one was Wrath, the last of this ungodly tire.
1646. Crashaw, Sospetto d’Herode, xxxviii. A gen’ral hiss, from the whole tire of snakes.
1710. Palmer, Proverbs, 201. This is a sin of quality for the most part, tho’ the lower tier of people are often tainted with it.
1882. W. B. Weeden, Soc. Law Labor, 66. The base Fuidirs composed the lower tier of society.
2. Naut. a. A row of ships moored or anchored at a particular place; hence, an anchorage or mooring-place where ships lie in rows or columns.
1732. Lond. Mag., I. 152. All the Ships Crews in the Teer gathered together.
1771. Ann. Reg., 148. A Dutch vessel … broke from her mooring, ran foul of a tier of ships.
1774. Hull Dock Act, 33. No more than three ships … shall lie in the same tier, within the said haven.
1865. Dickens, Mut. Fr., I. i. The tiers of shipping lay on either hand.
1907. Law Rep., Probate, 61. A steamship … which was lying at Greenwich tier.
b. (See quot. 1882.)
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), X. 644/2. He [the mate] is to have a diligent attention to the cables, seeing that they are well coiled and kept clean when laid in the tier.
1800. Colquhoun, Comm. Thames, iii. 94. Tea … stowed in the cable tier of a China Ship.
1825. [see TIERER1].
1833, 1860. [see cable-tier s.v. CABLE sb. 7].
1882. Nares, Seamanship (ed. 6), 95. The tiers are large racks, and stow the stream cable, hawsers for the kedge, etc., anchor gear, runners and tackles,… clothes-lines, etc.
3. attrib. and Comb.: tier-board, a board belonging to a cable or rope tier: see 2 b; tier-ranger, a (Thames) river thief; tier-saw: see quot. 1877; tier-shot: see quot. 1867.
1887. Mather, Nor’ard of Dogger (1889), 81. They spread some o’ the trawl-warp *tier-boards along the thwarts, an’ a rug on the top of ’em for me to lie on.
1858. Dickens, Down with Tide, Repr. Pieces (1899), 198. *Tier-rangers, who silently dropped alongside the tiers of shipping in the Pool, by night. Ibid., 200. We took no Tier-rangers … nor other evil disposed person or persons.
1862. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, IV. 370/2. Tier-rangers or river pirates.
1877. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Tier-saw, one for cutting curved faces to bricks for arches and round pillars.
1828. J. M. Spearman, Brit. Gunner (ed. 2), 35. *Tier Shot.—At 50 rounds per gun.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Tier-shot, that kind of grapeshot which is secured in tiers by parallel iron discs.
