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Glite Dictionary
hangman's rope

hangman's rope

1 9.8
A rope that people use to kill someone by putting it around their neck and making them fall
  • noun
  • /ˈhæŋmənz roʊp/
  • NSFW
translation icon : soga del ahorcado
  • In olden times, many criminals faced execution by hangman's rope for their offenses.

Examples

  • He spares us the mercifully quick extinction of the hangman's rope and gives us the slow death of slavery.

    Captain Blood (1935)

  • The hangman's rope symbolized the harsh justice system of that era.

  • The prisoner was sentenced to death by hangman's rope after the trial.

Synonyms

noose
vshangman's rope
  • NSFW
65 6.1

A loop of rope with a knot that tightens used to catch animals or for hanging

refers only to the rope used to carry out legal human death sentences
halter
vshangman's rope
  • NSFW
1 9.6

A rope loop used to hang a person

describes the rope mainly by its role in carrying out legal death sentences
hangman's halter
vshangman's rope
  • NSFW
9.9

A rope used to hang a person sentenced to death

emphasizes the rope as part of a legal sentence rather than the agent
hempen necktie
vshangman's rope
  • NSFW
9.9

A strong rope tied into a loop for hanging people

stresses the rope's use specifically in carrying out formal legal death sentences

Surface Forms

hangman's rope singular
hangman's ropes plural

Morphology

hangman's + rope

The meaning is directly compositional: 'hangman' (the person or act of hanging/execution) plus 'rope' yields a rope used for hanging, so a learner who knows both constituents can infer the MWE meaning. The possessive construction and the straightforward physical relation mirror common patterns across languages, making the phrase immediately understandable to B1 learners who know the parts.

Etymology

Hangman's rope names the rope a hangman used to put a loop around someone's neck at an execution. Because that rope caused a person's death, people came to see a 'hangman's rope' as a sign of 'execution' or of 'bad luck'.