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Synonyms

rope in

British  

verb

  1. to persuade to take part in some activity

  2. to trick or entice into some activity

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
rope in Idioms  

  1. Also, rope into. Lure or entice someone into doing something, as in We didn't want to spend the night there, but we got roped in by my lonely aunt, or The salesman tried to rope us into buying some worthless real estate. These expressions allude to catching an animal by throwing a rope around it. [Mid-1800s]

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Alex Honnold, who scaled El Capitan in California's Yosemite National Park without a rope in 2017, said on Saturday: "Sadly it's raining in Taipei right now so I don't get to go climbing."

From BBC • Jan. 24, 2026

I saw the same woman jumping rope in front of the outdoor Twister game every morning.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 19, 2025

If all of this sounds tiring, rope in one of your kids to help you out.

From MarketWatch • Nov. 14, 2025

“They shouldn’t be the rope in this tug of war game that’s going on,” said Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.

From Salon • Nov. 6, 2025

A third strategy is to grab one rope in one hand and use an implement, such as a long pole, to pull the other rope toward you.

From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.