goat rope
goat rope noun: a confusing, disorganized situation often attributed to or marked by human error.
Noun
goat rope (plural goat ropes)
- A confusing, disorganized situation often attributed to or marked by human error.
- Never did find out what happened in July, but that was a goat rope that was poorly coordinated.2010, Mark Perry, Talking to Terrorists: Why America Must Engage with Its Enemies
- What a goat rope! The fact that we had to appear three different times was certainly an indicator things were going poorly for the prosecution.2013, Lyle O’Connor, Due Process
- Synonyms:
- clusterfuck, debacle, fiasco, goatfuck, fustercluck, goat rodeo
- A convoluted issue that is contested by many parties.
- “How far up does this little goat rope go?” Sarge asked. “As far as we know, all the way to the commander in chief.”2013, A. American, Surviving Home, page 32
- Synonyms:
- hairball
- A rodeo event in which competitors attempt to lasso a goat, usually for younger participants.
- An ill-advised solution to contain a problem; a solution that will eventually fail.
Synonyms of goat rope
Forms of goat rope
| plural | goat ropes |
|---|---|
| alternative form | goat-rope |
Origin of goat rope
Derived from goat roper
Questions about goat rope
- What does goat rope mean?
- Goat rope means a confusing, disorganized situation often attributed to or marked by human error.
- What part of speech is goat rope?
- Goat rope is a noun.
- What is the plural of goat rope?
- The plural of goat rope is goat ropes.
Words near goat rope in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: goat 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-goat rope.ogg.
Cite this entry: “goat rope.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/goat_rope. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.