rope dancen.
/ˈrəʊp dɑːns/, /ˈrəʊp dans/, U.S. /ˈroʊp ˌdæns/ 1. A performance on a rope stretched between two points at some height above the ground.
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society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > acrobatic performance > [noun] > rope-walking or dancing
rope-dancing1625
rope-walking1625
funambuling1650
funambulation1707
rope dance1727
wire-dancing1755
tightrope dancing1800
funambulism1801
wire-walking1804
wire act1891
wirework1899
slacklining1999
1727 Dalton's Country Justice (new ed.) lxvi. 206 Nusances... Stages for Mountebanks or Rope-dances.
1757 E. Cobden Disc. & Ess. 332 Let me with my Hautboy to the Postern advance, I'll engage all your Puddings will take a Rope dance.
1764 S. Foote Patron iii. 67 The peoples' [sic] fondness for certain funambuli, or rope-dances.
1869 B. Chunder Trav. Hindoo iii. 145 This beats Pliny's elephants dancing the rope-dance.
1883 J. Parker Tyne Chylde 7 Life was a rope-dance, a swing, a butterfly chase.
1916 Mod. Philol. 14 58 His performance was probably in the nature of an acrobatic exhibition, perhaps a rope-dance.
2004 Korea Times (Nexis) 17 Sept. In the Garden Stage, tight-rope walker Kwon Won-tae will perform a rope dance.
2. The death throes of a person executed by hanging. Also in extended use. Now archaic.
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1735 London Mag. Jan. 35/2 Not that rope dance that fam'd Jack Catch is Expert in teaching graceless wretches.
1739 M. Browne Poems 184 Where Ruffian Ketch..Shews himself skill'd to rear a Scholar, Rope-Dances teaching—by the Collar.
1827 J. A. Paris Philos. in Sport I. vi. 150 He is so fond of antics that he wo'n't suffer a mop or broom in his house; lest, I suppose, it should..put an end to the fly's rope-dance upon a cobweb.
1890 J. F. A. Wilde Anc. Cures, Charms, & Usages Ireland 140 And when the fatal day came, all the town was crowded to see young Denis dance the rope-dance.
2000 B. Cornwell Harlequin i. 121 I don't want to watch you hang. I don't mind watching most fools doing the rope dance.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, November 2010; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1727