a temporary stoppage or slowing of business, traffic, telephone service, etc., as due to a strike, storm, or accident.
the act or state of tying up or the state of being tied up.
an involvement, connection, or entanglement.
the tie-up between the two companies; his tie-up with the crime syndicate.
a mooring place; place where a boat may be tied up.
a cow barn with stalls.
a stall allotted to each cow in such a barn.
(tr) to attach or bind securely with or as if with string, rope, etc
to moor (a vessel)
(tr; often passive) to engage the attentions of
he's tied up at the moment and can't see you
(tr; often passive) to conclude (the organization of something)
the plans for the trip were tied up well in advance
to come or bring to a complete standstill
(tr) to invest or commit (funds, etc) and so make unavailable for other uses
(tr) to subject (property) to conditions that prevent sale, alienation, or other action
a link or connection
a standstill
an informal term for traffic jam
Fasten securely; also, moor a ship. For example, Can you help me tie up these bundles? or The forecast was terrible, so we decided to tie up at the dock and wait out the storm . The first usage dates from the early 1500s, the nautical usage from the mid-1800s.
Impede the progress of, block, as in The accident tied up traffic for hours . [Late 1500s]
Keep occupied, engage, as in She was tied up in a meeting all morning . [Late 1800s]
Make funds or property inaccessible for other uses, as in Her cash is tied up in government bonds . [Early 1800s]
First recorded in 1705–15; noun use of verb phrase tie up
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Stripping out one-time costs, such as expenses related to its tie-up with Union Pacific and continued costs from its freight-train derailment in Ohio, earnings were $3.52 a share in the second quarter.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
Mistral told AFP that the tie-up "gives us greater visibility to speed up the financing and development of Mistral Compute", its cloud and AI infrastructure business.
From Barron's ● Jul. 21, 2026
The Takeda tie-up adds to InSilico’s collaborations, including deals with Eli Lilly for up to $2.75 billion and SK Biopharmaceuticals.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026
The decision followed a change in ownership at the department store, whose incoming management said the tie-up had been a strategic mistake.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026
“Wouldn’t the two men have tied their boats together? Wouldn’t you have the mutual consent necessary—an emergency situation, even if feigned—for a successful tie-up at sea? Wouldn’t you, Mr. Gillanders?”
From "Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel" by David Guterson
The states and Paramount will collide in court again on Aug. 3, when the judge takes up the expected motion for a preliminary injunction — which could tie up the deal for months.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026
Nunez dismissed the idea saying it would "tie up almost half of the security deployment".
From Barron's ● May 31, 2026
Back-to-back wins mean it looks increasingly likely Leeds will avoid the drop, so boss Daniel Farke will have to tie up a few loose ends with his goalkeepers.
From BBC ● Apr. 21, 2026
They don’t want to tie up their money, especially for a degree that seems increasingly precarious.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 31, 2026
White would need to tie up these loose ends, but at last a witness had emerged who could directly implicate Hale in the plot.
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
The tie-ups were unveiled after CEO Jensen Huang spent the weekend eating barbecue in Seoul with the country's tech leaders and appearing on a popular TV show.
From Barron's ● Jun. 8, 2026
CEO Jim Farley says the automaker will expand the tie-ups while developing a plan for Chinese competition in the U.S.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026
US artificial intelligence chip titan Nvidia unveiled tie-ups with Indian computing firms on Wednesday as tech companies rushed to announce deals and investments at a global AI conference in New Delhi.
From Barron's ● Feb. 18, 2026
Ferguson continued to chase brand endorsements and other moneymaking deals, including tie-ups with the US retail giant Target and the cruise line Cunard.
From BBC ● Feb. 11, 2026
That afternoon, when Mr. Zuckerman went to milk the cows and clean out the tie-ups, he was still thinking about what a wondrous pig he owned.
From "Charlotte's Web" by E.B. White
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
