▪ each of a number of successively overlapping ruffles or flounces on a garment: "a full skirt gathered into three tiers"
▪ a level or grade within the hierarchy of an organization or system: "companies have taken out a tier of management to save money"Similargradegradationstepechelonpoint on the scalerung on the ladderarchaic:degree
▪ (in Tasmania and South Australia) a forested mountain range, especially one of a series:"open plains bordered by far extending precipitous mountain tiers"
Word Originlate 15th century: from French tire ‘sequence, order’, from tirer ‘elongate, draw’.