rope

Alternative forms

• roap, roape (all obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English rope, rape, from Old English rāp (“rope, cord, cable”), from Proto-Germanic *raipaz, *raipą (“rope, cord, band, ringlet”), from Proto-Indo-European *roypnós (“strap, band, rope”), from *reyp- (“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”), Low German Reep (“rope”), Swedish rep (“rope”), Icelandic reipi (“rope”), Albanian rrip (“belt, rope”).

Pronunciation

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

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊp

Noun

rope (countable and uncountable, plural ropes)

Length of rope.

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

   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.
   • 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.
   • 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.
8. (Jainism) A unit of distance equivalent to the distance covered in six months by a god flying at ten million miles per second. ^syn.
   • 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, […]

9. (jewelry) A necklace of at least 1 meter in length.
10. (nautical) Cordage of at least 1 inch in diameter, or a length of such cordage.
11. (archaic) A unit of length equal to 20 feet.
12. (slang) Flunitrazepam, also known as Rohypnol.
13. (slang, vulgar) A shot of semen that a man releases during ejaculation.
14. (in the plural) The small intestines.

    the ropes of birds

Verb

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

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

   The robber roped the victims.

2. (transitive) To throw a rope around (something).

   The cowboy roped the calf.

3. (intransitive) To be formed into rope; to draw out or extend into a filament or thread.
   • Shakespeare

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

Anagrams

• Pero, oper, pore, reop, repo

Noun

rope (shortened form of roolipeli)

1. (gaming) RPG (role-playing game)

Anagrams

• Repo, pore, repo

Verb

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

1. to shout

References

• “rope” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

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