Word.ws English Dictionary

tie someone's hands

tie someone's hands verb: to render someone powerless to act, to thwart someone.

Verb

tie someone's hands (third-person singular simple present ties someone's hands, present participle tying someone's hands, simple past and past participle tied someone's hands)

  1. (idiomatic, often in passive voice) To render someone powerless to act, to thwart someone.
    • This contract would have tied my hands.
    • I'd like to help you, but my hands are tied.

Forms of tie someone's hands

third-person singular presentties someone's hands
present participletying someone's hands
past participletied someone's hands
pasttied someone's hands

Questions about tie someone's hands

What does tie someone's hands mean?
Tie someone's hands means to render someone powerless to act, to thwart someone.
What part of speech is tie someone's hands?
Tie someone's hands is a verb.
What is the past tense of tie someone's hands?
The past tense of tie someone's hands is tied someone's hands.

Words near tie someone's hands in the dictionary

  1. tie pins
  2. tie plate
  3. tie plates
  4. tie rod
  5. tie rods
  6. tie someone's hands
  7. tie someone's tubes
  8. tie tac
  9. tie tack
  10. tie tacks
  11. tie tacs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tie someone's hands (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-tie someone's hands.ogg.

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