rope

Etymology 1

table 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”), Icelandic reipi (“rope”), Albanian rrip (“belt, rope”).

noun

1. (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.
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.
   Jimmy began to scream and ropes of spit shot from his mouth. 2003, Dennis Lehane, Mystic River, page 138
   1. (slang, vulgar) A shot of semen that a man releases during ejaculation.
4. (dated) A continuous stream.
   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. 1852, John Bourne, A Treatise on the Screw Propeller: With Various Suggestions of Improvement, page 38
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. (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.
   The central strip of the loka, the Middle World, represents its smallest area, being only one rope wide and one hundred thousand leagues high, […] 2001, “Review of Metaphysical Teaching”, in Nagendra Kr. Singh, editor, Encyclopaedia of Jainism, page 7522
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 the plural) Semen being ejaculated.
15. (with "the") Death by hanging.
    The murderer was sentenced to the rope.

Etymology 2

table From Middle English ropen, rope (“to form ropes”), from rop (“rope”); see above.

verb

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.
   We roped down to the platform selected for the bivouac; set up our bags and brewed a reasonable meal. 1984, G. F. Dutton, The Ridiculous Mountains, page 153
4. (intransitive) To be formed into rope; to draw out or extend into a filament or thread.
5. (incel slang, intransitive) To commit suicide, particularly by hanging.
   In figure 71, the poster Brahcel notes that he “almost roped” because he could not find the community […] 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
   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.” 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
   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. 2021, Laura Bates, From Incels to Pickup Artists: The Truth about Extreme Misogyny and How it Affects Us All, unnumbered page
   My life is a mess; I might as well rope.

Etymology 3

table 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.

noun

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