rope

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: rōp, IPA^(key): /ɹəʊp/
• (US) enPR: rōp, IPA^(key): /ɹoʊp/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊp

Etymology 1

From Middle English rop, rope, from Old English rāp (“rope, cord, cable”), from Proto-West Germanic *raip, from Proto-Germanic *raipaz, *raipą (“rope, cord, band, ringlet”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁roypnós (“strap, band, rope”), from *h₁reyp- (“to peel off, tear; border, edge, strip”).

Alternative forms

• roap, roape (all obsolete)

Noun

rope (countable and uncountable, plural ropes)

1. (uncountable) Thick strings, yarn, monofilaments, metal wires, or strands of other cordage that are twisted together to form a stronger line.

   Synonyms: twine, line, cord; see also Thesaurus:string

   Nylon rope is usually stronger than similar rope made of plant fibers.

2. (countable) An individual length of such material.

   The swinging bridge is constructed of 40 logs and 30 ropes.

3. A cohesive strand of something.

   The duchess wore a rope of pearls to the soirée.

   • 2003, Dennis Lehane, Mystic River‎, →ISBN, page 138:

     Jimmy began to scream and ropes of spit shot from his mouth.

   1. (slang, vulgar) A shot of semen released during ejaculation.
4. (dated) A continuous stream.
   • 1852, John Bourne, A Treatise on the Screw Propeller: With Various Suggestions of Improvement, page 38:

     The principle of any such device should be to pull on the vessel by a rope of water passing in at the bow and out at the stern.

5. (baseball) A hard line drive.

   He hit a rope past third and into the corner.

6. (ceramics) A long thin segment of soft clay, either extruded or formed by hand.
7. (computer science) A data structure resembling a string, using a concatenation tree in which each leaf represents a character.

   Synonym: cord

8. (military, uncountable) A kind of chaff (material dropped to interfere with radar) consisting of foil strips with paper chutes attached.
9. (Jainism) A unit of distance equivalent to the distance covered in six months by a god flying at ten million miles per second.

   Synonyms: rajju, infinitude

   • 2001, “Review of Metaphysical Teaching”, in Nagendra Kr. Singh, editor, Encyclopaedia of Jainism‎, →ISBN, page 7522:

     The central strip of the loka, the Middle World, represents its smallest area, being only one rope wide and one hundred thousand leagues high, […]

10. (jewelry) A necklace of at least 1 meter in length.
11. (nautical) Cordage of at least 1 inch in diameter, or a length of such cordage.
12. (archaic) A unit of length equal to 20 feet.
13. (slang) Rohypnol.
14. (slang, usually in the plural) Semen being ejaculated.

    shooting ropes

15. (with "the") Death by hanging.

    The murderer was sentenced to the rope.

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Irish: rópa
• Tok Pisin: rop

Translations

Further reading

• Rope on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Rope (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 2

From Middle English ropen, rope (“to form ropes”), from rop (“rope”); see above.

Verb

rope (third-person singular simple present ropes, present participle roping, simple past and past participle roped)

1. (transitive) To tie (something) with rope.

   The robber roped the victims.

2. (transitive) To throw a rope (or something similar, e.g. a lasso, cable, wire, etc.) around (something).

   The cowboy roped the calf.

3. (intransitive) To climb by means of a rope or ropes.
   • 1984, G. F. Dutton, The Ridiculous Mountains, page 153:

     We roped down to the platform selected for the bivouac; set up our bags and brewed a reasonable meal.

4. (intransitive) To be formed into rope; to draw out or extend into a filament or thread.
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     Let us not hang like roping icicles / Upon our houses' thatch.

5. (Internet slang, intransitive) To commit suicide, particularly by hanging.
   • 2019, anonymous, quoted in Julia Rose DeCook, "Curating the Future: The Sustainability Practices of Online Hate Groups", dissertation submitted to Michigan State University, page 153:

     In figure 71, the poster Brahcel notes that he “almost roped” because he could not find the community

   • 2020, Joshua A. Segalewitz, "'You Don't Understand... It's Not About Virginity': Sexual Markets, Identity Construction, and Violent Masculinity on an Incel Forum Board", thesis submitted to the University of Dayton, page 36:

     ToxicAlcoholSyndrome explains that his, “dreams are all really depressing and vivid, so… I’m constantly in a bad mood and know in the back of my brain, I need to rope.”

   • 2021, Laura Bates, From Incels to Pickup Artists: The Truth about Extreme Misogyny and How it Affects Us All, unnumbered page:

     Another man wrote that the only reason he hasn't “roped” (incel terminology for death by suicide) is he didn't want to ruin his family's Christmas.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:rope.

   My life is a mess; I might as well rope.

Synonyms

• (tie with rope): tie, bind, secure
• (throw a rope around): lasso
• (kill oneself): ropemaxx; see also Thesaurus:commit suicide

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle English rop (“gut, intestine”), from Old English rop, ropp; compare Middle Dutch rop, roppe (“fish guts”).

The modern pronunciation results from phonological assimilation to Etymology 1.

Alternative forms

• rop, rap (dialectal)

Noun

rope (plural ropes)

1. (in the plural) The small intestines.

   the ropes of birds

Anagrams

• Pero, oper, pore, reop, repo

Finnish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈrope/,
• Rhymes: -ope
• Syllabification^(key): ro‧pe

Noun

rope (slang)

1. (gaming) Clipping of roolipeli (“RPG, role-playing game”).

Declension

Derived terms

Anagrams

• Repo, pore, repo

Lithuanian

Noun form

rópe

1. instrumental/vocative singular of rópė (“turnip”)

Middle English

Etymology 1

Noun

rope

1. Alternative form of rop (“rope”)

Etymology 2

Verb

rope

1. Alternative form of ropen (“to form ropes”)

Etymology 3

Verb

rope

1. Alternative form of ropen (“to cry out”)

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Old Norse hrópa, from Proto-Germanic *hrōpaną.

Verb

rope (imperative rop, present tense roper, simple past ropte, past participle ropt)

1. to shout

Derived terms

• utrope

References

• “rope” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Verb

rope (imperative rop, present tense ropar or roper, simple past ropa or ropte, past participle ropa or ropt, present participle ropande)

1. Alternative form of ropa