Tied House
Preserved but no longer current.
A retail business, especially a public-house, that is obliged by a contract to obtain its supplies from some particular firm. There are tied houses in the drapery, grocery, dairy, boot and shoe, hardware, liquor, and book trades. — Liberty Review, 14th April, 1894.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “Tied House” mean?
A retail business, especially a public-house, that is obliged by a contract to obtain its supplies from some particular firm. There are tied houses in the drapery, grocery, dairy, boot and shoe, hardware, liquor, and book trades. — Liberty Review, 14th April, 1894.
Is “Tied House” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.