subs. (football).—1. In pl. = a half-back.
2. (old).—A trick or knack; spec. (nautical) TO KNOW THE ROPES (or TO BE UP TO THE ROPES) = (1) to be expert, and (2) to be artful, FLY (q.v.); TO PULL (or WORK) THE ROPES = to control or direct; TO ROPE IN (or ROPE) = (1) to lose a race by PULLING (q.v.) or other foul means; (2) to decoy (in a mock-auction, gambling-den, &c.): hence ROPER-IN = a decoy; and (3) to pull (or gather) in: as TO ROPE IN THE PIECES = to make money. Hence PLENTY OF ROPE = lots of choice; AT THE END OF ONE’S ROPE = exhausted, done for.
1623. MABBE, The Spanish Rogue [T. L. KINGTON-OLIPHANT, The New English, ii. 83. Among the verbs we see … GIVE HIM LINE].
1670. RAY, Proverbs [BOHN], 176. I thought I had given her ROPE enough, said Pedley, when he hanged his mare. Ibid., 59. Let him alone with the saints’ bell and give him ROPE enough.
1840. R. H. DANA, Jr., Two Years Before the Mast, ix. The captain, who had been on the coast before, and KNEW THE ROPES, took the steering oar.
1854. Our Cruise in the Undine, 15. I don’t mind young fellows having PLENTY OF ROPE.
c. 1859. New York Tribune [BARTLETT]. Mr. A—— complained that a ROPER-IN of a gambling-house had enticed him away, by whose means he had lost all his money.
1863. Fraser’s Magazine, Dec., ‘The English Turf.’ An order to pull a horse back, i.e., to ‘ROPE’ him, or, as in a late suspicious case it was expressed, to ‘put the strings on,’ is seldom resorted to.
1877. BESANT and RICE, The Golden Butterfly, xliii. You’ve sought me out, and gone about this city with me; you’ve put me UP TO ROPES.
1882. J. D. MCCABE, New York by Sunlight and Gaslight, xxxix. 540. The visitors to these establishments are chiefly strangers in the city, who are lured, or ‘ROPED,’ into them by agents of the proprietors.
1888. BOLDREWOOD, Robbery under Arms, xliv. He KNEW THE ROPES better than he did.
1888. Puck, xxiv. 150. He were sixty-nine year old—’n’ got ROPED IN by a young widow, ’n’ chouseled out of twenty-six thousan’ dollars.
1892. T. A. GUTHRIE (‘F. Anstey’), Voces Populi, ‘Free Speech,’ 103. Fellow-Citizens, I appeal to you, GIVE THIS MAN ROPE—he’s doing our work splendidly!
1897. B. MITFORD, A Romance of the Cape Frontier, I. xxi. I dare say ’e’s bin PUTTING YOU UP TO THE ROPES.
1900. G. BOOTHBY, A Maker of Nations, i. You do require to KNOW THE ROPES. And what is more, you require to be very careful how you PULL THOSE ROPES when you are familiar with them.
Verb. (old).—1. To hang: see LADDER. Whence ROPE-TRICKS (ROPING or ROPERY) = roguery; ROPE-RIPE = fit for hanging; TO CRY ROPE = to warn, to bid beware; ‘give ROPE [or LINE] enough and he’ll hang’ = ‘He’ll decoy himself to his undoing’ (B. E.); MR. ROPER (or THE ROPER) = the hangman; THE ROPE-WALK = the Old Bailey; TO GO INTO THE ROPE-WALK = to take up criminal practice.
1553. T. WILSON, The Arte of Rhetorique. [NARES]. ROPERIPE chiding [of very foul and abusive language].
1584. R. WILSON, The Three Ladies of London [DODSLEY, Old Plays (HAZLITT), vi. 267]. Thou art very pleasant, and full of thy ROPE-RIPE—I would say rethoric.
1592. SHAKESPEARE, 1 Henry VI., i. 3, 53. Glo. Winchester Goose, I CRY—A ROPE! a rope! Ibid., 1593, Taming of the Shrew, i. 2. She may perhaps call him half a score knaves or so: an’ he begin once, he’ll rail in his ROPE-TRICKS. Ibid. (1595), Romeo and Juliet, ii. 4, 154. What saucy merchant was this that was so full of his ROPERY.
1611. CHAPMAN, May-Day, iii. 1. Lord, how you roll in your ROPE-RIPE terms!
1620. FLETCHER, The Chances, iii. 1.
| Gillian. You’ll leave this ROPERY | |
| When you come to my years. |
1660. HOWELL, Lexicon Tetraglotton. A ROPE-RIPE-ROGUE ripe for the rope, or deserving the rope.
1663. BUTLER, Hudibras, I. i.
| Cou’d tell what subtlest Parrots mean, | |
| That speak and think contrary clean, | |
| What Member ’tis of whom they talk | |
| When they CRY ROPE, and Walk, Knave, walk. |
d. 1705. EARL OF DORSET [CHALMERS, English Poets, viii. 345].
| Then the queen, overhearing what Betty did say, | |
| Would send MR. ROPER to take her away. |
1848. RUXTON, Life in the Far West, 14. Maybe you’ll get ROPED.
1871. Temple Bar, xxxi. 321. In the law, for instance, a barrister is said to have GONE INTO THE ROPE-WALK, when he has taken up practice in the Old Bailey.
1882. SERJ. BALLANTINE, Some Experiences of a Barrister’s Life, viii. What was called the ROPE-WALK [at the Old Bailey] was represented by a set of agents clean neither in character nor person.
2. (old).—To beat with a rope: hence ROPE’S-END = a thrashing.
c. 1460. Book of Precedence [E.E.T.S.] [T. L. KINGTON-OLIPHANT, The New English, i. 297. There are ROPPYS END, coke fyghtynge, callot …].
1593. SHAKESPEARE, Comedy of Errors, iv. 4, 46. Mistress … respect your end; or rather … beware the ROPE’S-END.
PHRASES.—A ROPE OF SAND (RAY) = (1) a feeble hold, and (2) an endless or unprofitable task; ON THE HIGH ROPES = elated, arrogant: see HIGH HORSE (B. E., GROSE); ‘What a ROPE!’ = ‘What the devil’; TO PUT A ROPE TO THE EYE OF A NEEDLE = to attempt the impossible or absurd; also the proverbial saying, ‘A ROPE and butter: if one slip, the other may hold.’
