English
rope
Pronunciation
  • (British) enPR: rōp, IPA: /ɹəʊp/
  • (America) enPR: rōp, IPA: /ɹoʊp/
Etymology 1

From Middle English rop, rope, from Old English rāp, from Proto-West Germanic *raip, from Proto-Germanic *raipaz, *raipą, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁roypnós, from *h₁reyp-.

Cognate with Scots rape, raip, Saterland Frisian Roop, Western Frisian reap, Dutch roop, reep, nds-de Reep, Swedish rep, Danish reb, Icelandic reipi, Albanian rrip.

Noun

rope

  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, 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.
    1. (slang, vulgar) A shot of semen released during ejaculation.
  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.
    Synonyms: 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
  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 plural) Semen being ejaculated.
    shooting ropes
  15. (with "the") Death by hanging.
    The murderer was sentenced to the rope.
Translations Translations Etymology 2

From Middle English ropen, rope, from rop; see above.

Verb

rope (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.
  4. (intransitive) To be formed into rope; to draw out or extend into a filament or thread.
  5. (internet slang, intransitive) To commit suicide, particularly by hanging.
    My life is a mess; I might as well rope.
Synonyms Etymology 3

From Middle English rop, from Old English rop, ropp; compare Middle Dutch rop, roppe.

The modern pronunciation results from phonological assimilation to Etymology 1.

Noun

rope (plural ropes)

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


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