Ropes
//ɹoʊps// name, noun, verb
name, noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 plural of rope form-of, plural
- 2 Basic skills of a job. in-plural
"show the ropes, learn the ropes"
Verb
- 1 third-person singular simple present indicative of rope form-of, indicative, present, singular, third-person
Proper Noun
- 1 A surname.
Example
More examples"It would be best to leave it to a man who knows the ropes."
Etymology
In the sense of skills, a now figurative use that originally referred to literal ropes. The phrase “he knows the ropes” written on a seaman’s discharge meant that he was inexperienced and only familiar with a ship’s principal ropes.
Related phrases
More for "ropes"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.