Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to swindle or cheat; to ensnare a victim into a (crooked) gambling game; thus the rope, the snare that is used (see cit. 1872).

1842		implied in roped game under rope v.
1849		Georgia Scenes in Schele De Vere (1872) 629: I’ll lay bank, if you must have a game, but I’ll make one condition: no roping in! I won’t have it.
c.1858		J.H. Green Reformed Gambler 203: He made farther developments as to the mode pursued by the light-fingered gentry to swindle unsuspecting men out of their money. He stated that places in this city kept persons employed to ‘rope in’ strangers.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 8/1: [They] are on the look out for a ‘flat,’ whom they intend to ‘rope in’ if he will only stand the ‘jolly.’.
1866		Night Side of N.Y. 59: The same hang-dog faces you see about the corner of Prince and Broadway [...] twisting their dyed moustaches, and eyeing the victim they have ‘roped in.’.
1872		G.P. Burnham Memoirs of the US Secret Service 348: He was a silvery talker, and could ‘rope in’ the sharpest of green horns, readily.
1879		Manaro Mercury (NSW) 1 Nov. 1/5: He was what we called a buzz bloke, and used to do anything mean — go for fogels and rope yokels in for sharpers.
1886		A. Pinkerton Thirty Years a Detective 209: This game [bunco] consists in ‘roping in’ or inducing an unsuspicious victim, with plenty of money, and then fleecing him of all his ready cash.
1889		Snacks July, No. 1 n.p.: He were sixty-nine year old – ’n’ got roped in by a young widow, ’n’ chouseled out of twenty-six thousan’ dollars [F&H].
1896		J.F. Lillard Poker Stories 54: When a fellow was roped into the game the gamblers [...] bought a deck for a dollar.
1901		H. Lawson ‘That Pretty Girl on the Army’ in Roderick (1972) 485: A Sydney private barmaid, who had once roped him in.

2. to include oneself (possibly in an underhand or unpopular manner).

1855

Broadway Belle (NY) 29 Jan. n.p.: Old Booth has refused to trust [...] us for another drink but we contrive to ‘rope in’ whenever Tom Hamblin and Harry Stevens go up to the bar.

3. to involve, to include, to force someone to be involved [post-1920 use is SE].

1871		L.H. Bagg Four Years at Yale 47: Rope in, to join one’s self to a set or party uninvited, to attach any one to the same unceremoniously or without his consent.
1882		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 11 Mar. 3/4: [H]e ropes In the suckers in his revival tours .
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 19 Sept. 18/2: ‘Jones has been roped in,’ say his friends; ‘I hope she’s got some money, so that he can go it a bit, and drop something amongst us.’.
1889		Kipling ‘The Bow Flume Cable-Car’ in Civil & Military Gaz. 10 Sept.(1909) 188: ‘O’Grady put in four thousand dollars of his own, and I was roped in for as much’.
1893		‘Bob Sterling’ Town-Bull 11: She even went to far [...] as to rope in a young married woman [...] for whom I expressed admiration.
1899		A. Binstead Gal’s Gossip 164: If you wish to make me feel like a stray cat in a strange garret, rope me into a church!
1905		G.W. Peck Peck’s Bad Boy Abroad 129: You Johnnies are a lot of confidence men, who live only to rope in rich American girls, so you can marry them.
1909		Wodehouse Mike [ebook] ‘The odds are, if Jackson’s so thick with him, that he’ll be roped into [trouble] too’.
1910		Wodehouse Psmith in the City (1993) 43: The first principle of warfare [...] is to collect a gang, to rope in allies.
1915		E. Pound letter 27 Aug. in Read Letters to James Joyce (1968) 41: Do you know of anyone whom you think ought to be roped in to cooperate.
1921		D.L. Sayers Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club (1977) 84: I don’t think we’ll rope in the B.B.C. It is so confoundedly public.
1930		H. Ashton Doctor Serocold (1936) 163: I ought to have roped in Jevons to do this.
1946		I. Bolton Do I Wake or Sleep in N.Y. Mosaic (1999) 85: He hated Mr Andrews’ parties – he never, if he could help himself, got roped into them.
1958		R. Chandler Playback 108: I’m kind of snoopy when I get roped in on a phoney like that one.
1966		F. Elli Riot (1967) 139: I’ve been in this zoo over four years already [...] after getting roped in on this screwball deal I’ll probably be here four more.
1970		H.E. Bates A Little of What You Fancy (1985) 543: Rope her in. Must have Edith with the troops.
1986		R. Campbell In La-La Land We Trust (1999) 193: He wanted me to rope young actresses into doing fuck flicks.
1998		D. Hecht Skull Session 254: I wondered if Paulie would rope you into helping him.
2001		‘Randy Everhard’ Tattoo of a Naked Lady 17: She was enough to rope in every rube on the lot.
2015		L. McInerney Glorious Heresies 311: ‘Isn’t that why you roped me into the Robbie O’Donovan thing?’.
2021		T. Pluck Boy from County Hell 317: She would not rope in anyone from Saint Malo to clean up her family mess.

4. as rope in the pieces, to make money.

1937–84

Partridge DSUE (1984) 987/2: late C.19–20.

5. to arrest.

1899		C. Rook Hooligan Nights 22: The School Board officer roped him in.
1928		M.C. Sharpe Chicago May (1929) 35: The New York police, on the other hand, seemed to be more efficient in roping you into jail.
1934		J. Franklyn This Gutter Life 285: Perhaps he got roped in after all?
1936		(con. 1830s–60s) ‘Miles Franklin’ All That Swagger 181: ‘Can I have your word to rope him in?’ demanded the man.
1942		Whizzbang Comics 78: They roped him in an hour ago on the information you sent.