tie-in

[ tahy-in ]

adjective

1. pertaining to or designating a sale in which the buyer in order to get the item desired must also purchase one or more other, usually undesired, items.
2. of or relating to two or more products advertised, marketed, or sold together.

noun

1. an arrangement or campaign whereby related products are promoted, marketed, or sold together:

   a book and movie tie-in.

2. a tie-in sale or advertisement.
3. an item in a tie-in sale or advertisement.
4. any direct or indirect link, relationship, or connection:

   There is a tie-in between smoking and cancer.

tie in

verb

1. to come or bring into a certain relationship; coordinate

noun

1. a link, relationship, or coordination
2. publicity material, a book, tape, etc, linked to a film or broadcast programme or series
3. 1. a sale or advertisement offering products of which a purchaser must buy one or more in addition to his purchase
   2. an item sold or advertised in this way, esp the extra item
   3. ( as modifier )

      a tie-in sale

Word History and Origins

Origin of tie-in¹

First recorded in 1920–25; adj., noun use of verb phrase tie in

Idioms and Phrases

Connect closely with, coordinate, as in They are trying to tie in the movie promotion with the book it is based on , or His story does not tie in with the facts . [First half of 1900s]

Example Sentences

However, an article designed to act as a tie-in to the piece has been published as planned in the BBC magazine Radio Times.

From The Daily Beast

DC is taking note, with a successful iPad Smallville tie-in.

From The Daily Beast

And growing: The film's release catapulted the movie tie-in version of the paperback back onto the top of bestseller lists.

From The Daily Beast

But the potential Tice tie-in indicates the real explanation could be rooted in a deal gone bad.

From The Daily Beast

A woman has a tie-in with those material things, and the new life brought freedom from that.

From Project Gutenberg

And all of them seem to have some sort of weird tie-in to these flashes of telepathic interference.

From Project Gutenberg

Could be tie-in his father's execution and use of psi ability.

From Project Gutenberg