rope-a-dope

See Rope-a-dope.

rope-a-dope (plural rope-a-dopes)

1. (boxing) A technique in which the boxer assumes a defensive stance against the ropes and absorbs an opponent's blows, hoping to exploit eventual tiredness or a mistake.
   • 1999, James W Hall, Tropical Freeze:

     He sounded like a retired boxer who'd specialized in the rope-a-dope.

   • 2003, Steve Hamilton, North of Nowhere:

     I went into my own version of Ali's rope-a-dope, ducking as many of the heavy blows as I could, and waiting for some kind of idea to come to me.

2. (figuratively) Any strategy where an apparently losing position is assumed in the hope of eventual victory.
   • 2002, Steven Hill, Fixing Elections:

     […] process that in recent years has degenerated, sadly, into one long scorched-earth campaign filled with partisan rancor and legislative rope-a-dope.

   • 2007, Robert Shrum, No Excuses: Concessions of a Serial Campaigner:

     Maybe, I suggested, it was the old rope-a-dope to lower expectations, but that was tougher for him than it had been in 2000: He was now the president.

rope-a-dope (third-person singular simple present rope-a-dopes, present participle rope-a-doping, simple past and past participle rope-a-doped)

1. (figuratively) To exhaust someone by stringing them along.

   Willis rope-a-doped us all night.

• peraeopod