Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One of a series of rows placed one above another.
  • noun A rank or class.
  • transitive & intransitive verb To arrange (something) into or rise in tiers.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A row; a rank, particularly when two or more rows are placed one above another: as, a tier of seats in a theater; the old three-decked war-ships had three tiers of guns on each side, the upper, middle, and lower tiers.
  • noun In organ-building, same as rank, 1 .
  • noun See tire.
  • noun One who or that which ties.
  • noun A child's apron. Also, erroneously, tire.
  • noun In entomology, same as leaf-tier.
  • To pile, build, or arrange in tiers. Compare tierer.
  • noun A range of mountains.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One who, or that which, ties.
  • noun A child's apron covering the upper part of the body, and tied with tape or cord; a pinafore.
  • noun A row or rank, especially one of two or more rows placed one above, or higher than, another.
  • noun the ranges of fakes, or windings, of a cable, laid one within another when coiled.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun One who ties (knots, etc).
  • noun Something that ties.
  • noun A layer or rank, especially of seats or a wedding cake.
  • verb transitive To arrange in layers.
  • verb transitive To cascade in an overlapping sequence.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a relative position or degree of value in a graded group
  • noun a worker who ties something
  • noun any one of two or more competitors who tie one another
  • noun something that is used for tying
  • noun one of two or more layers one atop another

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English tire, row, rank, from Old French, from tirer, to draw out; see tirade.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

to tie + -er

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Maybe from Middle French, from Old French tirer, "draw, pull out".

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Examples

Comments

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  • Is this the last of Leonard? No. His fall is broken by tiers of fern fronds.

    - William Steig, The Zabajaba Jungle

    October 5, 2008