The “modus operandi” of any thing. A nautical phrase originally.
1840. The captain, who had been on the coast before and “knew the ropes,” took the steering oar, and we went off in the same way as the other boat.—R. H. Dana, Jr., ‘Two Years before the Mast,’ ch. ix. p. 74–5. (N.E.D.)
1850. The belle of two weeks standing, who has “learned the ropes” [at Saratoga], is most degagé in her air, and expresses herself very nearly as well as her step along the corridor, as by the exuberance of her remark.—D. G. Mitchell, ‘The Lorgnette,’ ii. 186 (1852).
1850. He [the dog] is elderly, knows the ropes, has a sober good-humored twinkle, in his grayish eye that wins your regard.—G. H. Throop, ‘Nag’s Head,’ p. 44 (Phila.).
1853. [Captain W. B. had opened a restaurant]. The Captain knows the ropes.—Weekly Oregonian, April 9.
1854. [They] understand the ropes about town.—Mr. Trout of Pa., House of Repr. [For fuller citation see BORER.]
1856. Your uncle ’s been in Ohio, and knows the ropes.—Knick. Mag., xlvii. 411 (April).
1857. When Mace was a young shaver of fifteen and sixteen, just getting under way and learning the ropes in the store of Mr. Coolidge Claflin.—Id., xlix. 38 (Jan.).
1857. He informed me that he was also on his way to join the ‘Shenandoah,’ and that, as he had already made one cruise, he would look out for me on board ship, and teach me ‘the ropes.’—Id., l. 7 (July).
1860. I staid away about a week, and then fell to work again manfully; became acquainted with a young gentleman who ‘knew the ropes;’ and, under his guidance, I performed many marvellous feats.—Id., lv. 111 (Jan.).
1862. ‘The gentleman from the —— Ward seems to be green,’ replied an old member, who knew the ‘ropes.’—Id., lx. 225 (Sept.).
1866. When we object that, as the mail no longer runs along that safer path, we can hardly travel by it, he opines that we shall do well to stay a few days in Atchison, during which he will put us up to the ropes, and fix us generally in prairie politics.—W. H. Dixon, ‘New America,’ ch. i.
