See rope-a-dope in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"etymology_text": "See Rope-a-dope.",
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{
"ref": "1999, James W Hall, Tropical Freeze:",
"text": "He sounded like a retired boxer who'd specialized in the rope-a-dope.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2003, Steve Hamilton, North of Nowhere:",
"text": "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.",
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],
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"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."
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"id": "en-rope-a-dope-en-noun-4FANTXK~",
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"(boxing) 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."
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{
"ref": "2002, Steven Hill, Fixing Elections:",
"text": "[…] process that in recent years has degenerated, sadly, into one long scorched-earth campaign filled with partisan rancor and legislative rope-a-dope.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2007, Robert Shrum, No Excuses: Concessions of a Serial Campaigner:",
"text": "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.",
"type": "quote"
}
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"Any strategy where an apparently losing position is assumed in the hope of eventual victory."
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"(figuratively) Any strategy where an apparently losing position is assumed in the hope of eventual victory."
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"(figuratively) To exhaust someone by stringing them along."
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"etymology_text": "See Rope-a-dope.",
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"(boxing) 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."
],
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"etymology_text": "See Rope-a-dope.",
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Download raw JSONL data for rope-a-dope meaning in English (3.7kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-20 using wiktextract (c15a5ce and 5c11237). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
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