roping

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of rope.

   She spent the afternoon roping the fence posts together for the new paddock.

   Roping the runaway steer proved harder than he had expected.

   Note

   The -ing form carries every use of the verb, so context decides which one is meant. With an object it ties or lassoes (roping a steer). Without one it can mean climbing by rope, or a substance drawing out into threads, which is the use behind the stringy adjective. In racing, roping a horse means deliberately holding it back so that it does not win.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The practice of catching an animal by means of a rope.

   The rancher learned roping as a young boy on his family's farm.

   Team roping requires two riders working together to catch a single steer.

   Similarlassoing

   Note

   Usually an uncountable name for the skill or the sport, as in team roping. It can also be counted: ropings, in the plural, are individual events or performances, such as those at a rodeo. In the countable use each roping is one catch or one contest. In the uncountable use it is the craft a rancher learns.

3. 3
   adjective

   Forming sticky, stringy threads; thick and glutinous.

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