tie

A tie is the long strip of cloth a man knots under his shirt collar. Interviews, weddings, funerals and school — and pulled loose on the train home.

The verb is the bigger half of the word: you tie your laces, tie a knot, tie a boat to a post, tie your hair back. In sport a tie is a draw, a match where neither side wins, though in Britain a cup tie is the fixture itself, which catches everybody out. Ties are also what hold people together, in family ties and close ties between two countries. Mind the -ing form, which drops the e: tying, not tieing. And someone who is tied up is not in ropes, only too busy to come.

Phrases it lives in

• tie the knot — get married, said lightly and usually by somebody else
• tied up — too busy with something else to come
• black tie — the dress code that means a dinner jacket

Also practised as

• verbTo join laces or rope together with a knot.