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TIED UP
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I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Kept occupied or engaged
Example:
the phone was tied up for almost an hour
Classified under:
Similar:
busy (actively or fully engaged or occupied)
Context examples:
By my troth! said Chandos with a smile, it is very fitting that we should be companions, Nigel, for since you have tied up one of your eyes, and I have had the mischance to lose one of mine, we have but a pair between us.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The whole was tied up for the benefit of this child, who, in occasional visits with his father and mother at Norland, had so far gained on the affections of his uncle, by such attractions as are by no means unusual in children of two or three years old; an imperfect articulation, an earnest desire of having his own way, many cunning tricks, and a great deal of noise, as to outweigh all the value of all the attention which, for years, he had received from his niece and her daughters.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
She looked about her with due consideration, and found almost everything in his favour: a park, a real park, five miles round, a spacious modern-built house, so well placed and well screened as to deserve to be in any collection of engravings of gentlemen's seats in the kingdom, and wanting only to be completely new furnished—pleasant sisters, a quiet mother, and an agreeable man himself—with the advantage of being tied up from much gaming at present by a promise to his father, and of being Sir Thomas hereafter.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
On the very first evening after our arrival, Mr. Barkis appeared in an exceedingly vacant and awkward condition, and with a bundle of oranges tied up in a handkerchief.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Here he was tied up for a week and made love to by the man and woman.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
"Not a first attempt, I take it?" observing that the pages were numbered, covered only on one side, and not tied up with a ribbon—sure sign of a novice.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
“I don’t know how it is,” said he, “but I had hoped for so much from his return. But surely his hand was not tied up like that yesterday. What can be the matter?”
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
My mother pulled it up with impatience, and there lay before us, the last things in the chest, a bundle tied up in oilcloth, and looking like papers, and a canvas bag that gave forth, at a touch, the jingle of gold.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
At all events his face was tied up in a black silk handkerchief, which, with his hat perched on the top of it, was far from improving his appearance.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
"There's too much silver in it," he remarked as he tied up the gold-sack. "I don't think it will run quite sixteen to the ounce. You got a trifle the better of me, Womble."
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
