Rope-ripe

adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Deserving of being hanged. obsolete

    "Sometymes our coyne, could stop a gappe, / And purchace pardon by a traine: / But gallows lucke, and ropripe happe, / At length was gwerdon for our paine."

  2. 2
    Punishable by being hanged. obsolete

    "Therefore the reporting of our tale, may ſone appere plain if we firſt expreſſe our minde in plaine words, and not ſeeke theſe roperipe termes, which betraie rather a foole, then commende a wiſe man[…]"

Example

More examples

"Sometymes our coyne, could stop a gappe, / And purchace pardon by a traine: / But gallows lucke, and ropripe happe, / At length was gwerdon for our paine."

Etymology

From rope + ripe.

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