1877. Besant and Rice, Golden Butterfly, xliii. You've sought me out, and gone about this city with me; you've put me up to ropes.
1882. McCabe, New York, xxxix. 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.
1889. Snacks, July, No. 1. He were sixty-nine year old—'n' got roped in by a young widow, 'n' chouseled out of twenty-six thousan' dollars.
1892. Anstey, Voces Populi, 'Free Speech,' 103. Fellow-Citizens, I appeal to you, give this man rope—he's doing our work splendidly!
1897. Mitford, Romance of Cape Frontier, 1. xxi. I dare say 'e's bin putting you up to the ropes.
1900. Boothby, 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. Wilson, Arte of Rhetorique [Nares]. Rope-ripe chiding [of very foul and abusive language].
1584. Three Ladies of London [Nares]. Thou art very pleasant, and full of thy ropery.
1592. Shakspeare, 1 Henry VI., i. 3, 53. Winchester Goose, I cry a rope! a rope! Ibid., 1593, Taming of the Shrew, 1, 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), Rom. 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, Chances, iii. 1. You'll leave this ropery, When you come to my years.
1660. Howell, Lex. Tet. A rope-ripe-rogue ripe for the rope, or deserving hanging.
1663. Butler, Hudibras, 1. i. Could tell what subtlest parrots mean That speak, and think, contrary clean; What member 'tis of whom they talk When they cry Rope. . . .
d. 1705. Dorset [Chalmers, Eng. Poets, viii. 345]. The queen, overhearing what Betty did say, Would send Mr. Roper to take her away.
1848. Ruxton, 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, Experiences, 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.] [Oliphant, New Eng., i. 297. There are roppys end, coke fyghtynge, callot. . . .].
1593. Shakspeare, Com. 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.'
