footrope

[foot-rohp]

noun

Nautical.

1. the portion of the boltrope to which the lower edge of a sail is sewn.

2. a rope suspended a few feet foot beneath a yard, bowsprit, jib boom, or spanker boom to give a footing foot for a person handling sails.

footrope

/ ˈfʊtˌrəʊp /

noun

1. the part of a boltrope to which the foot of a sail is stitched

2. a rope fixed so as to hang below a yard to serve as a foothold

Word History and Origins

Origin of footrope¹

First recorded in 1765–75; foot + rope

Example Sentences

The researchers placed 10 battery-powered green LEDs at the mouth of one net, tying them to the “footrope” on its bottom side.

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A footrope ran below the spar; one could balance oneself by its help and he vaguely distinguished somebody close by.

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Jimmy laughed as he swung himself up to the footrope.

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He broke two of his nails before he finished his task and dropped from the footrope to the Tyee's deck, and the liner had sunk to a gleaming white blur and a smoke-trail on the rim of the sea before they had reefed the foresail and once more got way on her.

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The rigging was dropping to pieces; so that a man never knew, when he went aloft, whether he would not come crashing down by the run, from the parting of a rotten footrope or a perished seizing.

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