Idioms
End of one’s tether At loose ends
All knotted up Walking a tightrope
A knotty problem Rope a dope
Three sheets to the wind Lead by the nose
Hanging around Sleep tight
Getting the hang of it Devil’s rope (barbed wire)
Hung up Cloud swing (aerial act on rope in a circus)
Strung Out Loop the loop
Get hitched Jumping rope
Tying the knot Pulling for you
Roped in Tug of war
Showing the ropes Hand over fist
Hung out to dry Piss up a rope
Just enough rope The bitter end
Aphorisms
It was as helpful as throwing a drowning man both ends of the rope.
- Arthur Baer
We learn the rope of life by untying its knots.
- Jean Toomer
When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on.
- Thomas Jefferson
Give a man enough rope and he’ll hang himself.
- Proverb
Go hang yourselves (critics): you shall never want rope enough.
- Francoise Rabelais (1494 – 1553)
They were suffered to have rope enough ‘till they had haltered themselves.
- Thomas Fuller
Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity and sin as it were with a cart rope.
- Bible 5:18 Song of Solomon, Isaiah
Support by the United States is rather in the nature of the support that the rope gives to a hanged man.
- Nikita Khrushchev
Capitalism needs to function like a game of tug-of-war. Two opposing sides need to struggle for dominance, but at no time can either side be permitted to walk away with the rope.
- Pete Holiday
When we hang the capitalists they will sell us the rope we use.
- Joseph Stalin
A book is like a piece of rope; it takes on meaning only in connection with the things it holds together.
- Norman Cousins
Chemists employed by the police can do remarkable things with blood. They can weave it into a rope to hang a man.
- Margery Allingham