tie breaker

tie breaker (plural tie breakers)

1. an electronic circuit that transfers a load to a different power source
   • 1961, American Institute of Electrical Engineers, Transactions of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, The Society, page 18:

     The tie breaker transferred the current easily and represented only a slight interrupting duty.

   • 1966, Electrical World, volume 165, McGraw-Hill, page 58:

     The accompanying illustration shows a standard automatic transfer scheme in which the two main breakers are normally closed and the tie breaker open. Failure of either source brings tripping of the associated main breaker and closing of the tie breaker.

   • 1998, IEEE, 1998 IEEE Industrial & Commercial Power Systems Technical Conference, IEEE, →ISBN, page 30:

     The tie breaker relay in a normally open tie breaker application requires a relay with the 50 element to instantaneously trip the tie breaker if not blocked by the feeder relays.

2. Alternative spelling of tiebreaker
   • 1962, National Association of Counties, The County Officer, volume 27, National Association of Counties, page 138:

     ..has had the responsibility of designating one of the court's commissioners in chancery as the tie breaker if the county has an even number of members on its board of supervisors.

   • 1980, Jim Brown, Tennis, Strokes, Strategy, and Programs, Prentice-Hall, →ISBN, page 18:

     What is a tie breaker? A tie breaker is commonly used to complete a set when the score is 6-6 in games. Instead of playing until one player gains a two game lead, the players or teams play a series of points, the winner of which wins that set.

   • 2002, Secretary of State, Division of Elections, Florida Administrative Weekly, volume 28, Secretary of State, Division of Elections, page 526:

     If necessary, the total proximity tie-breaker points will be used as a tie breaker, as described in the Ranking and Selection Criteria Section of these Instructions.

• “tie breaker”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.