Rope

Rope - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

ROPE, n.

1. A large string or line composed of several strands twisted together. It differs from cord, line and string, only in its size; being the name given to all sorts of cordage above an inch in circumference. Indeed the smaller ropes, when used for certain purposes, are called lines.

Ropes are by seamen ranked under two descriptions, cable-laid, and hawser-laid; the former composed of nine strands, or three great strands, each consisting of three small ones; the latter made with three strands, each composed of a certain number of rope-yarns.

2. A row or string consisting of a number of things united; as a rope of onions.

3. Ropes, the intestines of birds.

Rope of sand, proverbially, feeble union or tie; a band easily broken.

ROPE, v.i. To draw out or extend into a filament or thread, by means of any glutinous or adhesive quality. Any glutinous substance will rope considerably before it will part.

rop: Used in the Old Testament for chebhel, "that which binds" (2Sa 17:13, etc.), and for `abhoth, "that which is woven" (Jud 15:13, etc.). In neither word is any specified thickness or strength connoted, and chebhel is translated equally well by "line" (2Sa 8:2, etc.) or "cord" (Jos 2:15, etc.), and `abhoth by "cord" (Ps 118:27, etc.), as best suits the context. Similarly in the New Testament the word schoinion, literally, "made of rushes" can mean the rope by which a boat is fastened (Ac 27:32) or small cords suitable for a whip (Joh 2:15). The usual material for ropes was certainly flax (hemp), but the Egyptians, and so possibly the Hebrews, at times made ropes of leathern thongs.

See CORD; LINE; SHIPS AND BOATS, III, 2.

Burton Scott Easton