> as lemmas

1840 Daily Picayune (New Orleans) 5 Sept. 2 Robert Brown, Pat Carlin, and F. Quin, supposed to have roped in a chicken importer—no proof of the fact.

1840 Daily Picayune (New Orleans) 18 Sept. 2/2 The persons rightly concluded it was an effort to ‘rope in’, and told Trainer so.

1848 J. R. Bartlett Dict. Americanisms To rope in, to take or sweep in collectively; an expression much used in colloquial language at the West.

1855 Our First Families ix. 113 Private houses..are very frequently furnished with a card-room, where the members of the family, with some unfortunate young man whom they have ‘roped in’ for the occasion, spend the night at ‘fip poker’.

1873 G. W. Perrie Buckskin Mose ix. 133 The gambler, whose practice in..‘roping in a greeney’, had become too well known.

1911 G. Burgess Find Woman 76 It was a funny story how young Michael Carnarvon got married... You see, young Carnarvon was really what you might call roped in.

1925 D. G. Mackail in Strand Mag. Sept. 254/2 I'm sorry for you, my man, but..another twenty-four hours, and we might have been roping you in, too.

1981 N. Freeling One Damn Thing iv. 30 The gendarmes..sent the urban police to rope in the rest of the band.

1995 L. Gunst Born Fi' Dead (1996) ii. 212 The word on the street in Kingston was that if the Americans roped in Jim Brown, the Tivolites would..start killing tourists.

1844 J. H. Carleton Prairie Logbks. 29 Aug. (1983) 78 Many..‘roped in’ for a hug on such a special occasion…. The term ‘roped in’, in the West, means the coming to entertainments, etc., where the individual in neither expected nor invited. If in New York three gentlemen were going to a Cafe for an oyster supper, and a fourth, unsolicited, should join them, he would ‘rope in.’

1859 Spirit of Times 12 Feb. 1/3 I think it is a good time for me to ‘rope in’, and help.

1871 L. H. Bagg Four Years at Yale 47 Rope in, to join one's self to a set or party uninvited.

1868 ‘M. Twain’ in Evening Star (Washington, D.C.) 13 Jan. 2/2 She ropes us in at the church fairs.

1916 ‘B. Cable’ Action Front 10 They..roped in my captain to identify me.

1935 W. S. Churchill Let. 10 Mar. in W. S. Churchill & C. S. Churchill Speaking for Themselves (1999) xvi. 392 Mary has been roped in to the electioneering and was addressing envelopes with all the rest of our progeny and Moppet last Saturday.

1970 Nature 2 May 395/1 Despite its ability to attract private funds, the zoo has been less successful at roping in the public.

2000 N.Y. Times 13 Feb. iv. 1/1 Mr. Bradley also roped in his share of independents in New Hampshire.