1 (fasten, secure) [+parcel, person, horse, sb's shoelaces] atar; amarrar; (LAm) [+one's shoelaces] atarse; amarrarse; (LAm) [+boat] amarrar he tied up the bag and took it outside he saw the man tying up his shoelace let me tie up your shoelaces, darling robbers tied him up and made off with the cash could you tie up your horse please? the dog was tied up outside the house we tied up the dinghy to get (o.s.) all tied up to tie up loose ends there are a lot of loose ends to tie up
2 (make inaccessible) [+money, capital] inmovilizar he has a fortune tied up in property tiene una fortuna inmovilizada invertida en bienes inmuebles;or how much money have you got tied up in the product? ¿cuánto dinero tienes invertido metido en el producto?;or
/don't tie up your savings in a pension plan/ until you're reasonably settled all my property is tied up in my business
3 (conclude) [+business deal] concluir; cerrar Kingfisher hopes to tie up a deal within the next two weeks we'll soon have it all tied up
4 (link) to be tied up with sth estar relacionado con algo; estar vinculado a algo; I'm sure her disappearance is tied up with the robbery estoy seguro de que su desaparición está relacionada con el robo vinculada al robo;or don't get tied up with people like him no te mezcles con gente como él
it's all tied up with the fact that ... the company is tied up with a Spanish firm for many of us our identity is tied up with other people I've got a feeling that the death may be tied up with his visit in some way my violence was all tied up with my emotional distress about the baby he's tied up with a girl in Lima to [get] tied up with sb why get tied up with someone like that? Who'd want to get tied up with a mother-in-law like that?
5 (occupy) to be tied up (with sth/sb) estar ocupado (con algo/algn); he's tied up with the manager just now ahora está ocupado tratando un asunto con el jefe;or I'm tied up tomorrow mañana estoy ocupado
/he's tied up at the moment/, I'm afraid. Can I help instead?
sorry I'm late, I got tied up siento llegar tarde, me entretuvieron
6 especially (US) (obstruct, hinder) [+traffic] paralizar; inmovilizar; [+production] paralizar; [+programme] interrumpir the floods knocked out power and tied up traffic farmers have been taking part in blockades that have tied up vacation traffic all the timber sales have been tied up in court for 33 months it's possible that recovery programs could be tied up for years in court the fog tied up all the shipping
