Meaning & use
break a tie
Last updated
Meaning
phraseidiom
To make a decision or add a deciding point when two sides have equal scores or votes, so that one of them wins.
Grammar: Takes tie as its object: the chair broke the tie.
Patterns
- break a tie
- break a tie between someone and someone
The committee chair cast the final vote to break a tie.
A penalty shootout is used to break a tie in the cup final.
They played one more question to break the tie.
Word forms
| third person singular | breaks a tie |
|---|---|
| past tense | broke a tie |
| past participle | broken a tie |
| -ing form | breaking a tie |
Common combinations
- cast a vote to break a tie
- The mayor cast a vote to break a tie.
- break a tie with a coin toss
- The captains broke a tie with a coin toss.
- break the tie in overtime
- A late goal broke the tie in overtime.
- a rule to break a tie
- The rules include a method to break a tie.
- unable to break the tie
- The judges were unable to break the tie.
Synonyms and how they differ
- settle a tie
- Settle stresses reaching a final decision, with less sense of a dramatic deciding moment.
- decide the outcome
- This is general and does not necessarily refer to equal scores.
- play off
- Play off means to play an extra game to decide a winner, and it refers to the method, not the result.
- tiebreak
- Tiebreak is the noun for the extra contest or rule used to separate equal scores.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: break a tie or break a draw?
break a tie vs break a draw
In British sport a tied match is often called a draw, but the usual idiom for deciding a vote is still break a tie.
Practice
The vote was five to five, so the chairperson used her casting vote to _____.
Choose one answer.
To break the tie is to decide when votes are equal. Make a draw does the opposite, and cut the knot is a different idiom.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “break a tie”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.