alley-oop
/aliˈuːp
/exclamation
Used to encourage or draw attention to the performance of an acrobatic feat: alley-oop, straight into the lake
noun
(also alley-oop pass) Basketball A high pass caught by a leaping teammate who tries to dunk the ball before landing: she could catch alley-oops all day he took an alley-oop pass from Vaughn...
- Team USA threw a couple of balls away with ill-conceived alley-oops, missed a few wide-open jumpers and blew a couple of defensive assignments.
- Her new abilities allow her to play basketball like nobody's business, complete with slam dunks and alley-oops off concrete urban walls.
- Sadly, the only time I really enjoyed the game experience was when I teamed up with my son to see how many sweet dunks and alley-oops we could pull off.
Origin
Early 20th century: perhaps from French allez! 'go on!' + a supposedly French pronunciation of up.
- call someone's bluff
- call someone/thing down
- call someone/thing off
- call someone/thing to mind
- call someone/thing to order
- call someone/thing to witness
- call someone to account
- call someone up
- call something forth
- call something in
- call something into (or in) question
- call something off
- call something over
- call something up
- call the shots (or tune)
- call the tune
- call time
- call time on
- call to quarters
- calluna
- call-up
- callus
- callused
- call waiting
- calm