1583 P. Stubbes Second Pt. Anat. Abuses sig. G8 As for the wikes within them [sc. the candles], they are of hurds, rope ends, & such other good stuffe.

1658 T. Flatman Naps upon Parnassus sig. B6^v Thy Wits in them as Wine in quart is; We can't see either of them until open'd, Which if they be not, they'r not worth a Rope end.

1798 R. Parkinson Experienced Farmer II. lxii. 133 Calves reared in this manner are apt to suck a rope-end, or any thing of that kind, or they will get hold of another calf's ear, or perhaps his pizzle.

1859 ‘G. Eliot’ Adam Bede I. i. v. 113 Hunting Will Maskery out of the village with rope-ends and pitchforks.

1890 57th Ann. Rep. Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Soc. 66 The object of this invention is to provide a ready and effectual means of applying and fixing shoes or sockets to the ends of wire or other ropes, without the use of screws or rivets, splicing or parting the rope end.

1902 C. J. Cornish Naturalist on Thames 101 Meal-dust hung from every nail, peg, and rope-end on the walls.

1963 J. Schaefer Monte Walsh 175 He jumped in close and whipped the rope end between the caught forelegs above the twists.

2002 D. Lundy Way of Ship (2003) i. 37 They were reputed to be harder men even than Yankees when it came to driving crews and the laying on of fists and rope-end.

1833 Times 21 Sept. 4/1 The captain rope-ended the boy for a quarter of an hour.

1872 R. D. Blackmore Maid of Sker I. vi. 49 The corners such as, in the navy, we should have been rope-ended for.

1890 W. S. Gilbert Foggerty's Fairy & Other Tales 200 She was a precious bad lot, as ought to be rope-ended.

1921 R. Blatchford Spangles of Existence xxix. 127 I been punched, an' kicked, an' rope-ended by a white-livered loafin' twicer.

1938 B. Eyre-Walker Ahoy! vi. 56 The two teams charged upon each other..the losers to be rope-ended.

1859 Dublin Univ. Mag. Dec. 649/2 The idea of their corpulent, old skipper being threatened with a rope-ending so tickled the fancies of the Dutchmen, that they grinned.

1908 I. Osgood Servitude i. 6 There is no rope-ending on this ship of mine.

1986 I. Wedde Symmes Hole (1988) 29 Chilton gave me a rope-ending and kept me on the vessel two weeks.