alley-oopint.adv.n.adj.
/alɪˈuːp/, /alɪˈʊp/, U.S. /ˌæliˈup/, /ˌæliˈʊp/ A. int.
‘Get up!’ ‘Go on!’ Used to encourage or draw attention to the performance of an acrobatic or other physical feat, esp. one involving a leap or lift upwards.
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1917 B. S. Walcott Let. 9 Sept. in Princeton Alumni Weekly 6 Feb. (1918) 389/1 I fortunately found a spark plug on the burn and got that repaired and alley oop!
1923 J. Dos Passos Streets of Night (1990) 168 Alley oop! Continuez!
1926 L. Hart Allez-up in Compl. Lyrics (1986) 76/1 We love to holler ‘Allez-up’! No matter what we do. That's why we always rally up When we're a little blue.
1927 W. Smith Are you Decent? 73 The Four Tumbling Tarks, who..thumped and bumped through their limbering up, and shouted ‘alley- oop!’
1950 Times 22 Dec. 2/5 ‘Allez oop,’ cried the acrobat's wife, with her heart in her mouth.
2003 A. Stockenberg Month at Shore xvii. 185 ‘Alley-oop,’ he said, and he lifted her out of her seat as easily as if she were a bag of laundry.
B. adv.
= up adv.1 32e. rare.
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1923 Middletown (N.Y.) Daily Herald 8 Nov. 4/3 Down with the starched collars! Allez up with the soft!
C. n.
1. A cry of ‘Alley-oop’ (see sense A.).
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1927 W. Smith Are you Decent? 94 Rollie says..we should cut out our ‘alley-oop’. He says: ‘It's vulgar, that alley-oop. Every small-time acrobat says “alley-oop”.’
1946 C. F. Wells Virtue Triumphant in T. Johnson Easy to Do Novelty Entertainments 34 Mother and Baby pick up the box with an ‘alley-oop’ and walk away with it.
1997 L. Willson tr. G. Köpf Innerfar 106 With an alley-oop Karlina..climbs nimbly with one foot in my clasped hands..and swings herself onto the nearest limb.
2010 D. Morrison Black Nile ii With an alley-oop I was sitting on the man's shoulders..as he waded into the chest-high surf.
2. North American. Sport. An alley-oop catch, pass, or manoeuvre (see sense D.).
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society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > cricket > fielding > [noun] > catch or catching > types of
gaper1903
slip-catch1903
lolly1924
slip-catching1950
alley-oop1965
1965 H. Rosenthal Big Play 71 Owens helped beat the Chicago Bears with a catch he made in the end zone;..a week later he gathered in an Alley Oop from Tittle for a victory over Green Bay.
1978 Daily Intelligencer (Doylestown, Pa.) 25 Sept. 17 c It was originally supposed to be an alley-oop to Harold.
1995 Fusion Sept. 92/2 Tomahawk jams, alley oops and all them other ‘phat’ moves.
2003 D. Millner & N. Chiles In Love & War 134 Derrick came down and fed Tariq with an alley-oop over the sleeping St. Anthony's defense.
2006 Snowboard Jrnl. No. 10. 29/1 (caption) It was a mystery how he managed to ride at all with that set-up, let alone tweak alley-oops on this natural quarter pipe!
D. adj. (attributive).
1.
a. North American. Sport. Designating a high, arcing pass, hit, or catch.
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society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > [adjective] > motion of ball
scorching1890
rifling1931
alley-oop1957
1957 Y. A. Tittle in Reno (Nevada) Evening Gaz. 4 Nov. 14/2 I decided to go for the Alley-Oop pass. I knew I had to lay it in the end zone, high, and I just rared back and threw as hard as I could.
1957 Jet 21 Nov. 37 (caption) Leaping high to snare football, brilliant San Francisco 49er rookie RC (Overdrive) Owens demonstrates his spectacular ‘alley-oop’ catch.
1974 Sporting News 27 July 52/3 Shortstop Danny Monzon slapped an alley-oop single over third baseman Roy Staiger's head into short left field.
2004 Press Enterprise (Riverside, Calif.) (Nexis) 25 Aug. c11 The catch Jarrett made on an alley-oop toss into the end zone over the entire first-team backfield had to help him feel better.
b. spec. in Basketball. Relating to or involving a high pass near the basket that is received above the rim and dunked or tipped in to score; (also) designating a basket scored from such a pass.
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1959 Appeal Democrat (Marysville, Calif.) 21 Jan. 6/1 (headline) Oroville using ‘Alley Oop’ play. The Oroville Tigers have adapted the San Francisco '49er football team's famed..play to their own use on the basketball court.
1974 Frederick (Maryland) Post 26 Mar. b1/1 Whether soaring to score on his ‘alley-oop’ shots or leaping high to intimidate Marquette's shooters, Thompson was the nemesis of the Warriors.
1991 Sports Illustr. 8 Apr. 23/1 An astonishing one-handed, alley-oop dunk two minutes into the game.
2004 Washington Post 31 Mar. (Home ed.) d1/5 Billups lobbing alley-oop passes to Tayshaun Prince that were converted into dunks.
2. In skateboarding, snowboarding, etc.: designating any of various spinning manoeuvres, typically involving a 180-degree turn.
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1989 Guardian 29 Nov. (Society section) 46/3 Do you know what an ollie to frontside 50/50 is? A stale-grab Madonna? A smith-grind to revert? An alley-oop lipslide?.. (They are all gravity- or death-defying tricks.)
1996 Inline Jan. 12/2 I can only do..some grinds like an alley-oop frontside..soul grind.
1998 Unity Sept. 36/2 Issam was..pulling real high alley-oop airs and 720 McTwists with great style.
2007 On Board Jan. 122 Here we go again! The Alley-Oop 540 is without a doubt the coolest and most beautiful trick you can do in the pipe.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2012; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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int.adv.n.adj.1917