rope-a-dope
rope-a-dope noun: a technique in which the boxer assumes a defensive stance against the ropes and absorbs an opponent's blows, hoping to exploit eventual tiredness or a mistake.
Noun
rope-a-dope (plural rope-a-dopes)
- A technique in which the boxer assumes a defensive stance against the ropes and absorbs an opponent's blows, hoping to exploit eventual tiredness or a mistake.
- He sounded like a retired boxer who'd specialized in the rope-a-dope.1999, James W Hall, Tropical Freeze
- I went into my own version of Ali's rope-a-dope, ducking as many of the heavy blows as I could, and waiting for some kind of idea to come to me.2003, Steve Hamilton, North of Nowhere
- Any strategy where an apparently losing position is assumed in the hope of eventual victory.
- […] process that in recent years has degenerated, sadly, into one long scorched-earth campaign filled with partisan rancor and legislative rope-a-dope.2002, Steven Hill, Fixing Elections
- Maybe, I suggested, it was the old rope-a-dope to lower expectations, but that was tougher for him than it had been in 2000: He was now the president.2007, Robert Shrum, No Excuses: Concessions of a Serial Campaigner
Verb
rope-a-dope (third-person singular simple present rope-a-dopes, present participle rope-a-doping, simple past and past participle rope-a-doped)
- To exhaust someone by stringing them along.
- Willis rope-a-doped us all night.
Forms of rope-a-dope
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | rope-a-dopes |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | rope-a-dopes |
| present participle | rope-a-doping |
| past participle | rope-a-doped |
| past | rope-a-doped |
Origin of rope-a-dope
See Rope-a-dope.
Questions about rope-a-dope
- What does rope-a-dope mean?
- Rope-a-dope means a technique in which the boxer assumes a defensive stance against the ropes and absorbs an opponent's blows, hoping to exploit eventual tiredness or a mistake.
- What part of speech is rope-a-dope?
- Rope-a-dope can be a noun or a verb.
- What is the plural of rope-a-dope?
- The plural of rope-a-dope is rope-a-dopes.
Words near rope-a-dope in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: rope-a-dope (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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Cite this entry: “rope-a-dope.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rope-a-dope. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.