A: I noticed a wedding band on John’s ring finger.

    B: Yeah. He tied the knot with his high school sweetheart last week.

    Note: This idiom means to “get married.” Knots have a place in the folklore of many cultures and usually symbolize unbreakable pledges. The saying supposedly originates in the Roman empire when the bride wore a girdle that was tied in knots; the groom untied the knots prior to the consummation of their marriage. This custom grew to actually tying the couple’s hands together as part of the ceremony. They were not allowed to remove it until the ceremony was done. Another speculation was that illiterate sailors and soldiers would send a piece of rope to their sweethearts when they wanted to get married. If the rope returned with a knot, it meant yes.