Noun

tie (plural ties)

1. A knot; a fastening.
2. A knot of hair, as at the back of a wig.
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.
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.
7. (construction) A structural member firmly holding two pieces together.
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.
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.
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) A connection between two vertices.

Etymology 2

From Middle English teien, teiȝen, from Old English tīġan, tīeġan, from Proto-Germanic *taugijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *dewk- (“to tug, draw”). Cognate with Icelandic teygja.

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.
2. (transitive) To form (a knot or the like) in a string or the like.
3. (transitive) To attach or fasten (one thing to another) by string or the like.
4. (transitive) To secure (something) by string or the like.
5. (transitive or intransitive) To have the same score or position as another in a competition or ordering.
6. (US, transitive) To have the same score or position as (another) in a competition or ordering.
7. (music) To unite (musical notes) with a line or slur in the notation.
8. (US, dated, colloquial) To believe; to credit.