slack-ropen.
1. A rope, loosely stretched, on which an acrobat performs. (Contrasted with tightrope n.)
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society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > acrobatic performance > [noun] > rope-walking or dancing > rope or wire
ropeeOE
low rope?c1635
slack-rope1749
slack wire1753
tightrope1801
blondin1863
high wire1863
slackline2002
1749 Ld. Chesterfield Let. 10 Jan. (1932) (modernized text) IV. 1293 There are fewer people who walk well upon that line than upon the slack rope.
1808 Z. M. Pike Acct. Exped. Sources Mississippi (1810) iii. 263 In the evening we went to see some performers on the slack rope.
1847 W. M. Thackeray Vanity Fair (1848) vi. 47 The signal which announced that Madame Saqui was about to mount skyward on a slack-rope ascending to the stars.
1892 R. Kipling & W. Balestier Naulahka xvii. 199 I have danced on the slack-rope before the mess-tents of the officers.
2. Nautical. (See quot. 1820.)
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1820 W. Scoresby Acct. Arctic Regions II. 456 These anchors being likewise connected with the ice, by means of a slack~rope.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1911; most recently modified version published online March 2021).
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n.1749