Forms: 5, 7, 9 tyre, (8–9 tier), 7– tire. See also TYRE. [Probably the same word as prec., the tire being originally (sense 1) the ‘attire,’ ‘clothing,’ or ‘accoutrement’ of the wheel. From 15th to 17th c. spelt (like prec.) tire and tyre indifferently. Before 1700 tyre became generally obsolete, and tire remained as the regular form, as it still does in America; but in Great Britain tyre has been recently (1920s) revived as the popular term for the rubber rim of bicycle, tricycle, carriage, or motor-car wheels, and is sometimes used for the steel tires of locomotive wheels.]
† 1. collective sing. The curved pieces of iron plate, called strakes or streaks, placed end to end or overlapping, with which cart and carriage wheels were formerly shod (now rarely used, and only for heavy agricultural vehicles, artillery carriages, etc.).
1485. in Ripon Ch. Acts (Surtees), 373. j tyre pro rota plaustri.
1601. Holland, Pliny, XXXIV. xiv. (1634), II. 514. Yron … such as will not serue one whit for stroke [= strake] and naile to bind cart-wheels withall, which tire indeed would be made of the other that is gentle and pliable.
1624. Althorp MS., in Simpkinson, Washingtons (1860), App. p. lvii. For a new tire for a waine.
1662. Act 14 Chas. II., c. 6 § 8. Any Waggon Wayne Cart or Carriage … the Wheeles whereof are lesse in breadth then foure Inches in the Tyre.
1753. Scots Mag., Nov., 540/1. Unless the wheels and tire of such carriages were made broader.
1769. [see tire-smith in 3].
1803. Wellington, in Gurw., Desp. (1837), I. 580. I wait only for some iron … to put Tires on some new wheels which I have made.
1827. Meaden, Patent Specif., No. 5574. I do not claim … binding them with concave iron tires in streaks or separate plates.
2. A rim of metal encompassing the wheel of a vehicle, consisting of a continuous circular hoop of iron or steel.
1782. Newcome, Patent Specif., No. 1320. The main or outside rim or tire consists of one whole sound ring.
1787. Brodie, Patent Specif., No. 1599. The tier is then heated a black red and put on the wheel.
1827. Meaden, Patent Specif., No. 5574. My improvements on wheels for carriages consist in binding them with an iron hoop tire having its internal surface concave.
1831. Youatt, Horse, 436. A strong circular frame of wood … is bound together by a hoop, or several hoops of iron, called tires.
1843. Penny Cycl., XXVII. 317/2. The introduction of solid or hoop tires is an immense improvement.
1845. Thomson, Patent Specif., No. 10990. I claim … the application of elastic bearings round the tire of carriage wheels.
1858. O. W. Holmes, Aut. Breakf.-t., vi. You couldn’t pry that out of a Boston man if you had the tire of all creation straightened out for a crowbar.
1860. Piesse, Lab. Chem. Wonders, 122. The tires of wheels previously to their being fixed are made hot.
1862. Fraser’s Mag., Nov., 634. Specimens of tires for locomotive engines … made without a weld.
1886. Hall Caine, Son of Hagar, II. xi. The tires of the wheels were still crusted with unmelted snow.
[Note. Thomson’s patent (quot. 1845 above) is known as the foundation of the pneumatic tire or tyre (2 b), and was largely cited in the great actions for infringement during the ‘tyre boom.’ T. did not actually use the expression ‘elastic tire’ or ‘tyre,’ but spoke of an ‘elastic band’ around the (iron) tire. This ‘band’ was however exactly what is now termed a ‘pneumatic tyre’—a distended inner tube with an outer cover or jacket. (H. V. Hopwood, Dep. Librarian, Patent Office Lib.)]
b. An endless cushion of rubber, solid, hollow, or tubular, fitted (usually in combination with an inner tube filled with compressed air: cf. PNEUMATIC 1 b) on the rim of a bicycle, tricycle, or motor-car; now also often upon the wheels of invalid and baby-carriages, and light horse vehicles. In this sense now commonly spelt tyre in Great Britain (see TYRE); tire is retained in America.
1872. Knight, Dict. Mech., III. 2579. At the same time Mr. Dunlop patented a tire of annealed cast-iron, grooved to receive an india-rubber band. Various other patents followed, embracing india-rubber as a material to be used in constructing tires.
1887. Bury & Hillier, Cycling, 63. The iron tire was necessarily incompatible with the light iron wheel; rubber tires were introduced.
1905. [see tire-cover in 3].
1910. Encycl. Brit., VII. 683/1. Rubber tires, in place of iron ones, appeared in 1868.
1911. Webster, Tire.… 4. Commonly spelt tyre in British usage…. The pneumatic tire for a bicycle or automobile serves primarily to reduce vibration or shock.
3. attrib. and Comb., as tire-cover, -cutter, -maker, -smith; tire-bender, a machine in which tires are rolled to a uniform curve (Knight, Dict. Mech., 1877); tire-bolt, a bolt used in securing the tire to the felloes (Cassell’s Encycl. Dict., 1888); tire-cement, cement for fixing or repairing rubber tires; tire-drill, a drill adapted to hold and perforate metal tires (Knight); tire-heater, a furnace for heating metal tires (Ibid.); tire-iron, one of the strakes forming the tire of a wheel (see sense 1); tire-measurer, a measure for ascertaining the length of the tire required by a wheel (Knight); tire-press, a hydraulic press in which the tires of railway wheels are forced on (Ibid.); tire-roller, a mill in which tires for railway wheels are rolled to develop the flanges, etc. (Ibid.); tire-screw = tire-bolt (Cent. Dict. Suppl.); tire-setter, a machine for forcing cart and carriage wheel tires into position and compressing them on the wheel (Cent. Dict.); tire-shrinker, a machine for compressing a heated tire lengthways to decrease the circumference (Knight); tire-upsetting machine (see quot.). See also under TYRE.
1894. Bottone, Electr. Instr. Making (ed. 6), 33. When quite dry and set firm, the surface … should be painted over with ‘bicycle *tire cement.’
1905. Times, 1 Aug., 14/1. With tire and *tire-cover gone, ten miles away from a garage … Crœsus … is in as lame a case as the man of modest means.
1897. Outing (U.S.), XXX. 213/1. These formidable *tire-cutters [clam-shells] lie along the coastal roads like dead leaves in a windrow.
1852. Mundy, Our Antipodes (1857), 32. Our carriages trundled on the nails of their new *tire-irons into Blackheath.
1769. Public Advertiser, 6 June, 3/2. A Coachmaker’s or *Tiresmith’s Tool for … wrenching the Tire off wheels.
1872. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Tire-up-setting Machine, a machine for shrinking tires without cutting.
