Tying means fastening or connecting things together with a knot, string, rope, or similar material. When you tie your shoelaces, you loop and pull the laces to keep your shoes snug on your feet. You might tie a ribbon around a gift box, tie a boat to a dock, or tie back your hair with an elastic band.

The word also means making things equal in a competition. When two teams are tying in a soccer game, they have the same score. If you and your friend are tying for first place in a spelling bee, you've both spelled the same number of words correctly. A tie game means nobody has won yet.

Sometimes people use “tying” to describe connections between ideas or situations. A detective tying clues together is connecting them to solve a mystery. When a teacher says she's tying today's math lesson to yesterday's, she's showing how the concepts connect.

The skill of tying knots matters in many activities: sailors must master dozens of knots, climbers depend on proper knots for safety, and surgeons use precise knots when stitching. Even something as simple as tying a good square knot versus a weak granny knot can mean the difference between something staying secure or coming loose at exactly the wrong moment.