Word.ws English Dictionary

devil's rope

devil's rope noun: mortal sin.

devil's rope: mortal sin
Image: Karelj, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

devil's rope (countable and uncountable, plural devil's ropes)

  1. Mortal sin.
    • ...those who are dragged to the gallows of hell by the devil's rope, that is, mortal sin, and will not confess.2008, Preaching in the Age of Chaucer: Selected Sermons in Translation, →ISBN, page 29
  2. An open branching shrub (Cylindropuntia imbricata) with cylindrical joints, which are covered with short raised ridges like the plait of a rope.
  3. A variety of cochineal, (Dactylopius newsteadi), used to destroy Cylindropuntia imbricata.
  4. (US, slang, southwest) Barbed wire
    • The devil's rope was originally designed to keep cows from roaming, Indians from encroaching, and the cowboys from singing their lonesome ballads.2011, Linh Dinh, Love Like Hate: A Novel, →ISBN, page 94

Forms of devil's rope

pluraldevil's ropes

Questions about devil's rope

What does devil's rope mean?
Devil's rope means mortal sin.
What part of speech is devil's rope?
Devil's rope is a noun.
What is the plural of devil's rope?
The plural of devil's rope is devil's ropes.

Words near devil's rope in the dictionary

  1. devil's proof
  2. devil's proofs
  3. devil's purse
  4. devil's purses
  5. Devil's Rings
  6. devil's rope
  7. devil's ropes
  8. Devil's Sea
  9. devil's shoestring
  10. devil's snuffbox
  11. devil's staircase

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: devil's rope (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-devil's rope.ogg.

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