noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Descending by means of a rope, abseiling.
2. 2
   A drumbeat pattern for calling soldiers to gather.

   "[…] he has to retramp the same streets, rebeat the same rappel […]"

3. 3
   (mountaineering) a descent of a vertical cliff or wall made by using a doubled rope that is fixed to a higher point and wrapped around the body wordnet

Verb

1. 1
   To abseil.
2. 2
   descend by means of a rappel wordnet
3. 3
   To call back a hawk. obsolete

Synonyms

All synonyms

abseilabseilabseilrope down

Example

More examples

"[…] he has to retramp the same streets, rebeat the same rappel […]"

Etymology

Etymology 1

Borrowed from French rappeler (“to pull through (a rope)”).

Etymology 2

Borrowed from French rappel. Compare repeal.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.