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“Tying the knot” means getting married. The phrase draws on an old metaphor of marriage as a binding, but the precise origin of the modern expression is uncertain. Historical references distinguish an early marriage-knot metaphor from a later recorded use of the phrase itself.
What does “tying the knot” mean?
In ordinary speech, “to tie the knot” means to marry. For example, “They’re tying the knot in June” means they plan to get married. The phrase can also be literal when describing a ceremony in which a couple physically ties a knot as part of the proceedings.
How old is the marriage-knot metaphor?
Phrase Finder cites a text from around 1225, The Legend of St. Katherine, that uses the Middle English word “cnotte” for “the tie or bond of wedlock; the marriage or wedding knot.” That is evidence that a knot already symbolized the marriage bond; it is not evidence that the exact modern idiom was in use then. Phrase Finder’s history of “tie the knot” makes that distinction important.
When is the expression recorded?
Matthew Prior, 1717
Phrase Finder identifies English poet and diplomat Matthew Prior’s humorous poem Alma; or, The Progress of the Mind (1717) as a recorded use of the expression: “So to the priest their case they tell: He ties the knot.”
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Francis Grose, 1811
Francis Grose’s 1811 edition of Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue includes the saying: “He has tied a knot with his tongue, that he cannot untie with his teeth: that is, he is married.” The wording uses the knot as a bond that cannot readily be undone.
A newspaper example, 1826
Phrase Finder also reproduces a January 1826 newspaper account of a Rothschild family marriage that says “when Hymen was to tie the knot.” It is a later printed example of the expression. These quotations are reported by Phrase Finder; they should be understood as attestations cited by that reference, not as independently verified critical-text transcriptions.
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Did the phrase come from handfasting?
Handfasting ceremonies join a couple’s hands and bind them with a cord or ribbon. The Knot describes this practice and discusses Celtic, Irish, Norse, and Scottish associations, making it a plausible symbolic parallel to the phrase. But a resemblance is not proof of origin: Phrase Finder says it is unclear whether the idiom came from a knot actually used in a wedding ceremony or from the broader idea of lasting unity. The Knot’s explanation of the expression and handfasting offers ceremony context, while the phrase’s derivation remains unsettled.
What about the old bed-string story?
One story claims that the phrase refers to knotted strings that supported old beds. Phrase Finder says there is no evidence for this explanation, so it should not be presented as the source of the idiom.
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What the history can—and cannot—tell us
The evidence supports a clear sequence: the knot was associated with the bond of wedlock by about 1225, and the expression “tie the knot” is recorded in Matthew Prior’s poem in 1717. That chronology does not establish a single ceremony or event that created the idiom. The safest explanation is that the phrase uses the familiar image of a knot as a binding bond; handfasting may be related in symbolism, but a direct origin has not been demonstrated.
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