ropy
/ˈrəʊpi
/(also ropey)
adjective (ropier, ropiest)
1Resembling a rope, especially in being long, strong, and fibrous: the ropy roots of the old tree...
- Glossy leaves hung from dipping boughs, and thick, ropy vines crept up massive, strong trees.
- The spindle cell areas showed extensive sclerosis with ropy, thick, osteoid-like collagen and microcalcifications.
- Their long hair was thick and ropy, hanging partway down their broad backs.
Synonyms
viscous, gelatinous, viscid, sticky, glutinous, mucilaginous, thick;
stringy, thready, fibrous, filamentous
2 (usually ropey) British informal Of poor quality: a portrait by a pretty ropey artist...
- It's a bit ropey sometimes but we're all very committed and confident, just not very talented.
- It was somewhere we had visited on art college trips where, apart from the odd art gallery, the only Parisian experience we had was stumbling back through the red light district to our ropey hotel.
- Only a handful of tracks are sung in rather ropy English.
2.1Slightly ill: I did feel a bit ropey earlier...
- ‘I felt ropey on the first lap,’ Radcliffe said, who had suffered a knee injury last week.
- Unfortunately, I was feeling too ropy to make my weekly journey to Arran and I definitely feel the worse for not having gone.
- I had managed to have a shave the night before, but still felt pretty ropey, so I decided to get something to eat.
Derivatives
ropily
- We all started fairly ropily, with only Arvo netting two points on the 1st hole.
- The paper is published daily except Fridays, and features plenty of local news mingled with several pages of agency reports and rather ropily written conservative comment.
- He has a marathoner's unnatural leanness, to go with his mobile full lips, big beaky nose, and long, ropily veined hands.
ropiness
- Oh, the agonies of a principal cellist who soars elegantly skywards in a Shostakovich symphony only to have the reviewer point out the ropiness of the cello section!
- The accent on fighting is perhaps overplayed given the slight ropiness of the fighting system.
Rhymes
- on the cheap
- on the chopping block
- on the couch
- on the credit side
- on the crest of a wave
- on the decrease
- on the defensive
- on the door
- on the dot
- on the downgrade
- on the drawing board
- on the edge of one's seat
- on the face of it
- on the fiddle
- on-the-field
- on the flat
- on the fly
- on the front foot
- on the game
- on the go
- on the grog
- on the ground
- on the hip
- on the home front
- on the hoof