tie one on

verb

To drink alcohol excessively, to the point of being drunk

Similar
hang one on
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Meanings

verbtie one on (third-person singular simple present ties one on, present participle tying one on, simple past and past participle tied one on)

present singular third person ties one on · participle present tying one on · participle past tied one on · past tied one on

  1. colloquialdatedidiomaticTo drink alcohol excessively, to the point of being drunk

    "Let's tie one on!" said Peachy gaily. "Come on, Eve!" Eve said she couldn't drink a thing. "Besides, it's fattening!"

    1940, Hearst's International combined with Cosmopolitan, volume 109, page 77
    1 more example

    Haiti […] was distressed, tropical, ramshackle, overcrowded, poor and on the brink of civil war. […] Its ornate hotels were in a state of decay, yet there was enough alcohol available for a guest to tie one on.

    2004 October 17, Paul Theroux, “Books: Damned Old Graham Greene”, in New York Times, retrieved 14 Sep 2010

    Synonyms: hang one on

Synonyms & antonyms

verbTo drink alcohol excessively, to the point of being drunk

Similar
hang one on
Also see
hang one on

Origin

From earlier tie a bun on, where bun means “bender, drunken spree” and probably comes from bung. First attested in the 1940s.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

tie one on. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tie%20one%20on

MLA

“tie one on.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tie%20one%20on. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “tie one on,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tie%20one%20on.

Source: tie one on on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.