means A dyeing technique where you twist, fold, and bind fabric before soaking it in dye, so the protected creases stay pale and the rest blooms with color in swirling, unpredictable patterns.

from A plain compound of "tie" and "dye" — you literally tie the cloth, then dye it. The English term came into common use in the 20th century, but the resist-dyeing method itself is ancient and worldwide: Japan has shibori, India and West Africa have their own binding traditions, all built on the same simple trick of blocking the dye where the fabric is bound tight. In America the phrase became inseparable from the psychedelic 1960s, when the rainbow spiral became a uniform of counterculture.