rope
UK /ɹəʊp/ · US /ɹoʊp/ noun, verb
Forms ropes roping roped roap roape rop rap
- noun (uncountable) Thick strings, yarn, monofilaments, metal wires, or strands of other cordage that are twisted together to form a stronger line. “Nylon rope is usually stronger than similar rope made of plant fibers.”
- noun (countable) An individual length of such material. “The swinging bridge is constructed of 40 logs and 30 ropes.”
- noun A cohesive strand of something. “The duchess wore a rope of pearls to the soirée.”
- noun (dated) A continuous stream.
- noun (baseball) A hard line drive. “He hit a rope past third and into the corner.”
- noun (ceramics) A long thin segment of soft clay, either extruded or formed by hand.
- noun (computer science) A data structure resembling a string, using a concatenation tree in which each leaf represents a character.
- noun (military, uncountable) A kind of chaff (material dropped to interfere with radar) consisting of foil strips with paper chutes attached.
- verb (transitive) To tie (something) with rope. “The robber roped the victims.”
- verb (transitive) To throw a rope (or something similar, e.g. a lasso, cable, wire, etc.) around (something). “The cowboy roped the calf.”
- verb (intransitive) To climb by means of a rope or ropes.
- verb (intransitive) To be formed into rope; to draw out or extend into a filament or thread.
- verb (transitive) To pull or restrain (the horse one is riding) to prevent it from winning a race.
- verb (Internet slang, originally incel slang, intransitive) To commit suicide, particularly by hanging. “My life is a mess; I might as well rope.”
- noun (in the plural) The small intestines. “the ropes of birds”
Synonyms
twine line cord string rajju infinitude tie bind secure lasso ropemaxx R-2 Mexican valium rophy roofy roach forget me drug circle leash
Etymology
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”).
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”), German Reif (“ring, hoop”), Norwegian Bokmål and Swedish rep (“rope”), Faroese and Norwegian Nynorsk reip (“rope”), Danish reb (“rope”), Icelandic reipi (“rope”), Albanian rrip (“belt, rope”).
From Middle English ropen, rope (“to form ropes”), from rop (“rope”); see above.
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.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A large, stout cord, usually one not less than an inch in circumference, made of strands twisted or braided together. It differs from cord, line, and string, only in its size. See Cordage.
- noun A row or string consisting of a number of things united, as by braiding, twining, etc.; as, a rope of onions.
- verb To be formed into rope; to draw out or extend into a filament or thread, as by means of any glutinous or adhesive quality.
- verb To bind, fasten, or tie with a rope or cord; as, to rope a bale of goods. Hence: --
Etymology [AS. rap; akin to D. reep, G. reif ring hoop, Icel. reip rope, Sw. rep, Dan. reb, reeb Goth. skaudaraip latchet.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “rope”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details