Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. constr. with the, execution by hanging.

1575-83		‘Bashe Libel’ in May & Bryson Verse Libel 78: Mast Bash did scape the rope, / And now be stout as Turk or Pope.
1584		Three Ladies of London II: Now thou art so proud with thy filching and cosening art, But I thinke one day thou wilt not be proude of the Rope and the Cart.
1594		Nashe Unfortunate Traveller in Works V (1883–4) 32: I liue in hope to scape the rope.
1607		G. Wilkins Miseries of an Enforced Marriage Act IV: Though I ’scaped by the nut-tree, be sure you’ll speed by the rope.
1611		Shakespeare Tempest I i: Stand fast, good Fate, to his hanging! make the rope of his destiny our cable, for our own doth little advantage!
1654–5		Mercurius Fumigosus 31 27 Dec.–3 Jan. 243: Though Hobbs be dead they cannot scape the Rope.
a.1661		‘The Cobler’s Last Will & Testament’ Rump Poems and Songs (1662) II 146: ROPE take you all, well may I cry.
1670		J. Ray Proverbs 208: As well worth it as a thief is worth a rope.
1761		Nancy Dawson’s Jests 35: I save them from the rope, lest I get my own neck in.
1790		‘Bumper Allnight. Esquire’ Honest Fellow [as 1761].
1801		Sporting Mag. Jan. XVII 203/2: ’Tis not the rope I mind, to that I’m callous; / But ’tis the death it brings.
1830		Lytton Paul Clifford II 220: How many times have I already saved that long carcass of thine from the rope.
1841		W.J. Neale Paul Periwinkle 24: I’d not only give you a rope, but a good rope’s ending.
1862		J.R. Lowell Biglow Papers 2nd Ser. (1880) 10: This world is awfle contrary: the rope may stretch your neck.
1880		Henley & Stevenson Deacon Brodie V tab.VIII iv: Man, but you’ve been near it this time — near the rope.
1891		G.R. Sims ‘How to Write a Novel’ Dagonet Ditties 123: You bring the brave hero right under the rope.
1902		A. Morrison Hole in the Wall (1947) 119: Yes, the rope, Cap’en Kemp, as you know well enough; the rope at Newgate Gaol.
1912		D. Runyon ‘From a Gentleman Inside’ 30 Sept. [synd. col.] I took me ten years smilin’, glad I didn’t get the rope.
1916		T. Burke Limehouse Nights 124: It’s rope for me and dad. And it’s a stretch for you two.
1924		S. Scott Human Side of Crook and Convict Life 24: He’ll get the rope all right.
1935		H. McCoy They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? in Four Novels (1983) 33: Wasting his sympathy on me and him getting the rope.
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 220: Nobody gets the rope in Illinois any more.
1959		A. Sillitoe ‘Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner’ Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner (1960) 15: What it [i.e. Borstal] does is show me what they’ve been trying to frighten me with. They’ve got other things as well, like prison and, in the end, the rope.
1969		A. Fugard Boesman and Lena Act I: Don’t talk big. You’re frightened of the rope.
1974		H. Levin Bandiet 145: I knew I was for the chop, yes, and I thought well yes maybe I’d get the rope.
1979		A. Brink Dry White Season 88: I went to see him. [...] A week before he got the rope. Just to say good-bye and happy landings and so on.
1987		P. Johnson History of Jews 558: Israel had never executed anyone before (or since) and many Jews, there and abroad, wanted to avoid the rope [i.e. for Adolf Eichmann].
2005		A. Lovejoy Acid Alex 238: I would definitely wind up dead, facing a baadjie or The Rope.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1884

in F. Roe Army Letters from An Officer’s Wife (1909) 332: Everyone knew that to have been the work of vigilantes, and was a message to some gambler or horse thief to get himself out of town or stand shotgun or rope jury.

3. (US) the penis.

1842		Wkly Rake (NY) 13 Aug. n.p.: the rake wants to knowWhy J— S— carried his ‘rope’ over the the upper part of his pants [...] the other day. We do not think it right to stand so much.
c.1850		Peeping Tom (London) 30 120/2: [a toast] ‘The well-greased rope that easily goes into the snatch-block’.

4. (US) in senses of something smokable [the similarity of some cigars to a piece of tarry rope].

5. (US) money [? it ‘holds one together’].

1938

C. Beaton Cecil Beaton’s N.Y. 325: The slang expressions become more elaborate each year, but certain of them have become a permanent part of the language. Money has become ‘rope’.

6. in drug uses [? the use of hemp in rope-making or rhy. sl. rope = dope n.¹ (7)].

7. (drugs) a vein [resemblance].

1970		C. Major Dict. Afro-Amer. Sl.
1978		H. Selby Jr Requiem for a Dream (1987) 255: You should learn to get some ropes like me.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 65: You wanna sell a coupla them ropes?

8. (US Und.) a form of confidence game.

1964

B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 92: But since you’ve been out you’ve learned new names for the game, / such as till-tapping, the carpet, the rope, and the drag, [i.e. con games] which all leads up to one thing.

9. (S.Afr.) a derog. term for an Afrikaner.

1970, 1982		informants in DSAE (1996).
1990		R. Malan My Traitor’s Heart (1991) 54: The tyranny of the rockspiders, crunchies, hairybacks, ropes and bloody Dutchmen [...] Afrikaners.
2005		A. Lovejoy Acid Alex 17: The same kid taught me [...] all the words for Rockspiders – Crunchies, Hairybacks, Clutchplates, Planks, Ropes, Boneheads, Dutchmen – Afrikaners-vrot-bananas.