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rope

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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See also: ropě and ropę

English

Pronunciation

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”).

    Cognates

    Cognate with Scots rape, raip (“rope”), Saterland Frisian Roop (“rope”), West Frisian reap (“rope, cord”), Dutch roop, reep (“rope, cord, ring, strip, bar”), German Low German Reep (“rope”), Swedish rep (“rope”), Danish reb (“rope”), Icelandic reipi (“rope”), Albanian rrip (“belt, rope”).

    Alternative forms

    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.
    4. (dated) A continuous stream.
    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 one meter in length.
    11. (nautical) Cordage of at least one inch in diameter, or a length of such cordage.
    12. (archaic) A unit of length equal to twenty 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.
    16. (rhythmic gymnastics, countable) An apparatus, currently with limited use by the senior contestants and not used in world-wide tournaments.
      1. (rhythmic gymnastics, metonymic) An apparatus program with a rope.
    Derived terms
    terms derived from rope (noun)
    Descendants
    • → Irish: rópa
    • Tok Pisin: rop
    Translations
    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
    Translations to be checked
    Further reading

    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.
      5. (transitive) To pull or restrain (the horse one is riding) to prevent it from winning a race.
        • 1882, Edwin Sharpe Grew, Baden Fletcher Smyth Baden-Powell, Arthur Cowper Ranyard, Knowledge...: A Monthly Record of Science (volume 1, page 132)
          Others, a shade more advanced, have been known to bribe a jockey to "hold," "rope" a horse, or a stableman to poison or stupefy him.
      6. (Internet slang, originally incel 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
      Derived terms
      terms derived from rope (verb)
      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

        Noun

        rope (plural ropes)

        1. (in the plural) The small intestines.
          the ropes of birds

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        Finnish

        Pronunciation

        • IPA(key): /ˈrope/, [ˈro̞pe̞]
        • Rhymes: -ope
        • Syllabification(key): ro‧pe
        • Hyphenation(key): ro‧pe

        Noun

        rope (slang)

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

        Declension

        More information nominative, genitive ...
        More information first-person singular possessor, singular ...

        Derived terms

        Anagrams

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        Lithuanian

        Noun

        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

        References

        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

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