arch. Also 4–7 tyre, 6–7 tyer, 7 tier. [a. F. tire-r = Prov., Sp., Pg. tirar, It. tirare:—Com. Romanic *tīrāre to draw, etc., of uncertain origin. (Hatz.-Darm. rejects the derivation from Teut. tairan, OLG. teren, conjectured by Diez.)]
I. † 1. intr. and trans. To draw, pull, tug. Obs.
a. 1300. Floriz & Bl., 736. Floriz forþ his nekke bed And blauncheflur wiþ draȝe him ȝet. Blauncheflur bid forþ hire suere And floriz aȝen hire gan tire.
14[?]. Beryn, 2565. Stillith ȝewe … for howe so evir yee tire, More þen my power yee owȝte nat desire.
1580. Lyly, Euphues, To Gentl. Schollers Oxf. (Arb.), 207. Sending me into the Countrie to nurse, where I tyred at a drie breast three yeares, and was at the last inforced to weane my selfe.
II. 2. Falconry. intr. Of a hawk: To pull or tear with the beak at a tough morsel given to it that it may exercise itself in this way; also, to tear flesh in feeding, as a hawk or other bird of prey. Const. on, upon. (So OF. tirer.) ? arch. or Obs.
c. 1220. Bestiary, 438. He billeð one ðe foxes fel … and he tireð on his ket.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., III. met. xii. 84 (Camb. MS.). The fowl þat hihte voltor … is so fulfyld of his song þat it nil etin ne tyren no more.
c. 1450. Bk. Hawkyng, in Rel. Ant., I. 296. Loke that thy hawke tire every other day while she is fleyng, for nothyng … woll clense a hawkes hedde as tyryng.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, C viij. An hawke … tyrith vppon Rumppys, she fedith on all maner of flesh.
1558. Phaër, Æneid, VI. R ij. A gastly Gripe, that euermore his growing guttes outdrawes, And tiring tearith furth his euerduring liuer vaines.
1612. Davies, Why Ireland, etc. (1787), 59. An eagle, with three eglets tiring on her breast, and the fourth picking at one of her eyes.
1737. Ozell, Rabelais, I. xli. I. 319. As the Falconers, before they feed their Hawks, do make them tire at a Hen’s Leg, to purge their Brains of Phlegm.
b. transf. of persons. To feed greedily upon.
1598. Dallington, Meth. Trav., G ij. The Kitchin Doctor gaue his patient the necke and bones to tyre vpon, and kept the wings himselfe.
1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe (1871), 58. The stall-fed foreman … was grown as fat as an ox with tiring on the sirloins. Ibid., 86.
a. 1629. Hinde, J. Bruen, viii. (1641), 29. Rob wife and children of their meanes … and oftentimes tyre upon the carkasses.
† c. fig. To prey upon. Obs.
1581. T. Howell, Deuises (1879), 208. Your loue the Grype that tyers vpon your harte.
1594. Marlowe & Nashe, Dido, V. ii. The grief that tires upon thine inward soul.
1610. Histrio-m., V. 136. O, how this vulture (vile Ambition) Tyers on the heart of greatnesse.
1624. Bp. Hall, True Peacemaker, Wks. 539. Is there any of you … whose heart is daily tyr’d upon by the vultur of his secret guiltinesse?
d. To exercise oneself upon (in thought or action).
1607. Shaks., Timon, III. vi. 4. Vpon that were my thoughts tyring when wee encountred. Ibid. (1611), Cymb., III. iv. 96. When thou shalt be disedg’d by her That now thou tyrest on.
† 3. trans. To tear at, tear, pluck. Obs. rare.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, I. 787. Whos stomak foughles tiren [v.r. tyren] euere mo.
† b. (causal.) To cause (a hawk) to ‘tire.’ In quot. transf. Obs.
1594. ? Greene, Selimus, Wks. (Grosart), XIV. 217. Like a lion fierce, Tiring his stomacke on a flocke of lambes.
