zip-tie, v.

zip-tie
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zip-tie_v%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 2021

# zip-tieverb

## Factsheet

### What does the verb zip-tie mean?

There is one meaning in OED's entry for the verb zip-tie. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.

This word is used in U.S. English.

### How common is the verb zip-tie?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

2017 | 0.018
2018 | 0.018
2019 | 0.019
2020 | 0.024
2021 | 0.026
2022 | 0.028
2023 | 0.031
2024 | 0.032

### How is the verb zip-tie pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzɪptʌɪ/
ZIP-tigh

#### U.S. English

/ˈzɪpˌtaɪ/
ZIP-tigh

### Where does the verb zip-tie come from?

Earliest known use

1980s

The earliest known use of the verb zip-tie is in the 1980s.

OED's earliest evidence for zip-tie is from 1985, in Cycle World.

zip-tie is formed within English, by conversion.

Etymons: zip tie n.

### Nearby entries

1. zipper problem, n. 1985–
2. Zippie, n.¹ 1968–
3. zippie, n.² 1986–
4. zippily, adv. 1924–
5. zippiness, n. 1907–
6. zipping, n. 1868–
7. Zippo, n.¹ 1944–
8. zippo, n.² 1973–
9. zippy, adj. 1889–
10. zip tie, n. 1969–
11. zip-tie, v.1985–
12. zip top, n. 1926–
13. zip-up, adj. & n. 1927–
14. zip wire, n. 1971–
15. zir, pron. 1993–
16. zir, adj. 1993–
17. ziraleet, n. 1794–
18. ziram, n. 1950–
19. zirbal, adj.?a1425–
20. zirbus, n. a1400–
21. zircaloy, n. 1953–

## Etymology

### Summary

Formed within English, by conversion.
< zip tie n., after tie v.

## Meaning & use

U.S.

1. 1985–
   transitive. To fasten or secure (something) with a zip tie or zip ties; (often) esp. to bind (a person's wrists or ankles) with a zip tie or zip ties. Cf. zip tie n.
   1. 1985

      > The plastic latch was zip-tied for security.

      Cycle World January 63/2 (caption)
   2. 2005

      > When we got these guys we had them sandbagged and zip tied, meaning we had a sandbag on their heads and zip ties..on their hands.

      New York Review of Books 3 November 69/2
   3. 2010

      > ‘Zip tie her hands!’ someone shouted. ‘She'll kill us all.’

      L. M. Altom, Baby Twins i. 11
   U.S. English
   1. bind Old English–
      esp. To make fast (a person) with bonds or fetters; to deprive of personal liberty, make a captive or prisoner.
   2. i-binde Old English–1275
      transitive. To bind.
   3. to bind hand and foot Old English–
      hand and foot (also hands and feet, foot and hand, feet and hands): at or by the hands and feet, esp. in to bind hand and foot; (more generally…
   4. umgive a1300–1400
      transitive. To enclose, surround, environ.
   5. fast c1300–
      transitive. To bind, secure, or confine (a person). In later use also (Scottish): to secure or tether (an animal).
   6. warrok 1362–1440
      transitive. To girth (a horse); to bind (a person). Obsolete.
   7. hamper a1375–
      transitive. To obstruct the free movement of (a person or animal), by fastening something on, or by material obstacles or entanglements; to…
   8. bolt 1377–1616
      transitive. To fetter, shackle; also figurative. Obsolete.
   9. astrain c1425–1594
      To bind; to put under obligation; to restrain.
   10. shackle c1440–
       transitive. To confine with shackles; to put a shackle or shackles on.
   11. estrain 1483
       transitive. To bind tightly.
   12. to put in irons 1533
       Having, or so as to have, the hands or feet shackled; in or into shackles or fetters. Frequently in to put in irons: to shackle, to fetter.
   13. to tie up 1570–
       To tie (a person or animal) to some fixed object or in some confined space, so as to prevent from escaping; to fasten up.
   14. manacle 1582–
       transitive. More generally: to fetter (legs, etc.); to fasten, secure.
   15. beshackle 1599–
   16. to tie (also lay) neck and heels 1618–
       to tie (also †lay) neck and heels: to confine or bind securely. Also †to lie neck and heels and figurative.
   17. fillet 1633–
       transitive. To bind with or as with a fillet. †To bind or tie up, to confine or swathe with a bandage (obsolete). Also Surgery. To bandage (a limb).
   18. kilt a1689–
       To fasten or tie up; to pull or hoist up; to ‘string up’, to hang.
   19. to tie down 1699–
       literal. To fasten down or confine by tying: see sense 1 and down, adv.
   20. oblige 1718
       transitive. To fasten or attach closely; to bind, tie up. Obsolete.
   21. hog-tie 1886–
       transitive. To secure (an animal) by tying all four feet together, or (a person) by tying the hands and feet together.
   22. zip-tie 1985–
       transitive. To fasten or secure (something) with a zip tie or zip ties; (often) esp. to bind (a person's wrists or ankles) with a zip tie or zip…
   View in Historical Thesaurus
   1. tie Old English–
      transitive. To bind, fasten, make fast (one thing to another, or two or more things together) with a cord, rope, band, or the like, drawn together…
   2. halch c1400–
      transitive. To fasten (something); to tie; to knot. Chiefly English regional in later use.
   3. lace c1405–
      transitive. To attach or fasten (an object) on or to something else, or in a particular position, by means of a lace or laces; to fasten on (an…
   4. cable?1507–
      transitive. To furnish with a cable or cables; to fasten with or as with a cable, to tie up.
   5. twitch 1612–
      transitive. To draw (something) tight by means of a cord, rope, etc.; to tie or fasten tightly or firmly; (also) to tighten (a cord, etc.). Also figur…
   6. lash 1624–
      Chiefly Nautical. To fasten or make fast with a cord, rope, thong, piece of twine, etc.; †to truss (clothes); to fasten to (something). Also with down…
   7. wup 1808–
      transitive. To bind (something) round with cord, thread, etc.
   8. snub 1888–
      Nautical and U.S. To check or stop (a rope or cable) suddenly while running out; to stop or bring up (a boat, etc.) sharply or suddenly, esp. by…
   9. zip-tie 1985–
      transitive. To fasten or secure (something) with a zip tie or zip ties; (often) esp. to bind (a person's wrists or ankles) with a zip tie or zip…
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzɪptʌɪ/
ZIP-tigh

### U.S. English

/ˈzɪpˌtaɪ/
ZIP-tigh

####

##### Consonants

- ppea
- ttea
- kkey
- bbuy
- ddye
- ɡguy
- tʃchore
- dʒjay
- ffore
- θthaw
- ssore
- ʃshore
- vvee
- ðthee
- zzee
- ʒbeige
- xloch
- hhay
- llay
- ɬrhingyll
- rray
- wway
- jyore
- mmay
- nnay
- ŋsing

Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence /ˈpɛtl/ but /ˈpɛtl̩i/.

##### Vowels

- iːfleece
- ihappy
- ɪkit
- ɛdress
- atrap, bath
- ɑːstart, palm, bath
- ɒlot
- ɔːthought, force
- ʌstrut
- ʊfoot
- uːgoose
- əletter
- əːnurse
- ɪənear
- ɛːsquare
- ʊəcure
- eɪface
- ʌɪpride
- aʊmouth
- əʊgoat
- ɔɪvoice
- ãgratin
- ɒ̃salon
- ᵻ(/ɪ/-/ə/)
- ᵿ(/ʊ/-/ə/)

##### Other symbols

- The symbol ˈ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with primary stress.
- The symbol ˌ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with secondary stress.
- Round brackets ( ) in a transcription indicate that the symbol within the brackets is optional.

View the pronunciation model here.

####

##### Consonants

- ppea
- ttea
- kkey
- bbuy
- ddye*
- ɡguy
- tʃchore
- dʒjay
- ffore
- θthaw
- ssore
- ʃshore
- vvee
- ðthee
- zzee
- ʒbeige
- xloch
- hhay
- llay
- rray
- wway
- jyore
- mmay
- nnay
- ŋsing

* /d/ also represents a 'tapped' /t/ as in

Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence /ˈpɛd(ə)l/ but /ˈpɛdl̩i/.

##### Vowels

- ifleece, happy
- ɪkit
- ɛdress
- ætrap, bath
- ɑlot, palm, cloth, thought
- ɑrstart
- ɔcloth, thought
- ɔrnorth, force
- ʊfoot
- ugoose
- əstrut, comma
- ərnurse, letter
- ɪ(ə)rnear
- ɛ(ə)rsquare
- ʊ(ə)rcure
- eɪface
- aɪpride
- aʊmouth
- oʊgoat
- ɔɪvoice
- ɑ̃gratin
- æ̃salon
- ᵻ(/ɪ/-/ə/)
- ᵿ(/ʊ/-/ə/)

##### Other symbols

- The symbol ˈ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with primary stress.
- The symbol ˌ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with secondary stress.
- Round brackets ( ) in a transcription indicate that the symbol within the brackets is optional.

View the pronunciation model here.

####

Simple text respell breaks words into syllables, separated by a hyphen. The syllable which carries the primary stress is written in capital letters. This key covers both British and U.S. English Simple Text Respell.

##### Consonants

b, d, f, h, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w and z have their standard English values

- gguy
- jjay
- yyore
- chchore
- khloch
- shshore
- ththaw
- dhthee
- zhbeige

##### Vowels

- atrap
- ahpalm
- airsquare
- arstart
- arrcarry (British only)
- awthought
- ayface
- a(ng)gratin
- edress
- eefleece
- eerdeer
- errmerry
- ikit
- ighpride
- irrmirror
- olot (British only)
- ohgoat
- oogoose
- oorcure
- orforce
- orrsorry (British only)
- owmouth
- oyvoice
- o(ng)salon
- ustrut
- uhletter
- urnurse
- urrhurry
- uufoot

## Frequency

zip-tie typically occurs fewer than 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.

zip-tie is in frequency band 2, which contains words occurring between 0.001 and 0.01 times per million words in modern written English. More about OED's frequency bands

Frequency data is computed programmatically, and should be regarded as an estimate.

### Frequency of zip-tie, v., 1990–2010

* Occurrences per million words in written English

Historical frequency series are derived from Google Books Ngrams (version 2), a data set based on the Google Books corpus of several million books printed in English between 1500 and 2010.

The overall frequency for a given word is calculated by summing frequencies for the main form of the word, any plural or inflected forms, and any major spelling variations.

For sets of homographs (distinct entries that share the same word-form, e.g. mole, n.¹, mole, n.², mole, n.³, etc.), we have estimated the frequency of each homograph entry as a fraction of the total Ngrams frequency for the word-form. This may result in inaccuracies.

Smoothing has been applied to series for lower-frequency words, using a moving-average algorithm. This reduces short-term fluctuations, which may be produced by variability in the content of the Google Books corpus.

Decade | Frequency per million words
--- | ---
1990 | 0.0032
2000 | 0.0032
2010 | 0.0032

### Frequency of zip-tie, v., 2017–2024

* Occurrences per million words in written English

Modern frequency series are derived from a corpus of 20 billion words, covering the period from 2017 to the present. The corpus is mainly compiled from online news sources, and covers all major varieties of World English.

Smoothing has been applied to series for lower-frequency words, using a moving-average algorithm. This reduces short-term fluctuations, which may be produced by variability in the content of the corpus.

Period | Frequency per million words
--- | ---
2017 | 0.018
2018 | 0.018
2019 | 0.019
2020 | 0.024
2021 | 0.026
2022 | 0.028
2023 | 0.031
2024 | 0.032

zip-tie, v. was first published in March 2021.

zip-tie, v. was last modified in July 2023.