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• lasso
  lasso

  noun

  a long rope or line of hide or other material with a running noose at one end, used for roping horses, cattle, etc.
• Lasso
  Lasso

  noun

  Orlando di Orlandus Lassus, 1532–94, Flemish composer.

lasso

¹ American  

[las-oh, la-soo] / ˈlæs oʊ, læˈsu /

noun

• lassos,
  plural
• lassoes
  plural

1. 

   a long rope or line of hide or other material with a running noose at one end, used for roping horses, cattle, etc.

---

verb (used with object)

• lassos,
  present (3rd person singular)
• lassoed,
  past participle,  past
• lassoing
  present participle

1. to catch with or as with a lasso.

Lasso ² American  

[lah-soh] / ˈlɑ soʊ /

noun

1. Orlando di Orlandus Lassus, 1532–94, Flemish composer.

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lasso British  

/ ˈlæsəʊ, læˈsuː /

noun

1. a long rope or thong with a running noose at one end, used (esp in America) for roping horses, cattle, etc; lariat

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verb

1. (tr) to catch with or as if with a lasso

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• lassoer
  noun
• unlassoed
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• lassoes
  plural
• lassos
  plural

Participles

• lassoing
  present
• lassoed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• lasso
  simple
• lassos
  simple
• have lassoed
  perfect
• has lassoed
  perfect
• am lassoing
  progressive
• are lassoing
  progressive
• is lassoing
  progressive
• have been lassoing
  perfect progressive
• has been lassoing
  perfect progressive

Past

• lassoed
  simple
• had lassoed
  perfect
• was lassoing
  progressive
• were lassoing
  progressive
• had been lassoing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will lasso
  simple
• will have lassoed
  perfect
• will be lassoing
  progressive
• will have been lassoing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of lasso

1760–70; < Spanish lazo < Latin laqueus noose, bond; see lace

Explanation

A lasso is the loop of rope that cowboys use to catch cattle. To be a successful cowboy or cowgirl, you have to learn to throw a lasso while riding a galloping horse. The circle of rope is called a lasso. and to lasso is to use it to catch a runaway animal. A child might lasso her stuffed animals while riding a rocking horse, and during a rodeo, cowboys who specialize in "trick roping" use their lassos to do fancy spinning tricks. Lasso was coined in the U.S. around 1807, from the Spanish lazo, and its Latin root laqueum, both meaning "noose" or "snare."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

lasso Lasso lassoes lassos lassoed lassoing

Gameway calls them wranglers because they are trained to lasso curious travelers heading for their gates.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026

Her frizzy hairstyle and lasso try celebration have attracted attention, resulting in the Red Roses selling red cowboy hats.

From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2025

This allows her to swing the hose up to spray water over her back with a movement like a lasso.

From NewsForKids.net ● Nov. 21, 2024

He also spoke of Valenzuela’s sense of humor and shared a memory of when Valenzuela would lasso people’s feet in the locker room.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2024

“You don’t really think you can lasso that flagpole, do you?”

From "The Mysterious Benedict Society" by Trenton Lee Stewart

But just as we wouldn’t expect Ted Lasso to solve a grisly homicide, we probably shouldn’t assume a Dick Wolf regular who isn’t Christopher Meloni can ham it up for a live audience.

From Salon ● Sep. 15, 2026

Sam was also pleasantly surprised by the newest season of Ted Lasso, which bounced back after its previous dreadful season.

From Slate ● Sep. 4, 2026

Sudeikis shrugged, and, in classic Ted Lasso style, told her he thought she could do it.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026

“Ted Lasso reminds us that people don’t quit companies; they often quit leaders. The CEOs who build great organizations aren’t just managing performance; they’re building belief.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026

Orlando di Lasso was known, moreover, for the sweetness, beauty, as well as the great number and variety of his works.

From The Century of Columbus by James J. Walsh

Astrophysicist Elizabeth Tasker expertly lassoes the fast-moving field of extrasolar-planetary science for this crisp, witty primer-plus.

From Nature ● Sep. 5, 2017

Miro's wildly swooping lines looked as if they had been cast like lassoes into vast space.

From Time Magazine Archive

He is a cowboy, better known as the Death of the Western Hero: to strut his forlorn machismo he arrogantly lassoes garbage cans and jukeboxes.

From Time Magazine Archive

The Pendleton Roundup Rodeo from Pendleton, Ore., lassoes together top cowboy contenders in this year's rodeo competition.

From Time Magazine Archive

Just then the colonel reappeared with half-a-dozen of the raw hide ropes used about the mules for lassoes, tethering, and binding on their loads.

From Real Gold A Story of Adventure by George Manville Fenn

Using long fishing poles with tiny lassos at their tips, they gently captured them by their strong necks, placed them in coolers, and documented the exact branch or stump where they found each lizard.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 9, 2023

The event, which dropped “film” from its name in 2021, lassos together all its media with the key word storytelling — a buzzy, often branded term.

From New York Times ● Jun. 7, 2023

The rider on horseback catches up and lassos Lester, which then runs into the median and hops a guardrail onto the freeway’s southbound shoulder before it is stopped.

From Seattle Times ● May 22, 2023

But white blood cells can also do something even cooler: create sticky, viscous “nets” and throw them out like lassos to capture and wrestle bacteria to their deaths.

From Slate ● Nov. 17, 2015

They swung them like lassos and began to ensnare Typhon, throwing lines around the creature’s legs and arms, using the tide to keep circling, slowly tangling him.

From "The Last Olympian" by Rick Riordan

The 33-year-old purred around out wide, scored the try that started the hosts' second-half blitz and lassoed Rotimi Segun with a crucial try-saving tackle before the break.

From BBC ● Jun. 8, 2026

An offense that hasn’t scored fewer than 24 points this season — and averaged 39.7 per game — lassoed the Longhorns and got help from a sometimes porous “D.”

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 29, 2022

So my partner and I went about reclaiming our apartment, scavenging for secondhand artworks at an antique shop where she lassoed an affordable piece of found-object art.

From New York Times ● Apr. 5, 2022

“We’ve got this thing kind of lassoed, and we just kind of need to keep holding on to it with what we’ve got,” fire behavior analyst Steven Volman said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2021

Then, taking the length of rope from her bucket, she fashioned a loop at the end, and with one expert throw lassoed the doorknob at the far side of the room.

From "The Mysterious Benedict Society" by Trenton Lee Stewart

The winner of the recent Mexico City edition was a fresh-faced Kaled Rosales Salazar, who mimicked lassoing and leading his opponent, Quintana, like a horse, with a giant white sandal as a prop.

From Barron's ● Aug. 22, 2026

While the sport of rodeo generally conjures up images of athletes riding bulls and lassoing animals, Whitemarsh’s Rascal Rodeo is all about adapting that experience for kids with special needs.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 14, 2023

Throughout the fiery video, a number of models — including the “Lemonade” artist herself — can be seen horseback riding, lassoing and straddling a bull swing while rocking an array of Ivy Park originals.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 9, 2021

Throwing a no-hitter, you could say, is like lassoing the moon.

From New York Times ● May 5, 2021

There were rackets and rods, balls and bats, and even ropes—for jumping Double Dutch or lassoing cattle, I guess.

From "Blended" by Sharon M. Draper