rope's end

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rope's end

n
(Nautical Terms) a short piece of rope, esp as formerly used for flogging sailors
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
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References in classic literature
"Mit a rope's end; mit a rope's end!" growled the German.
When we carry little uns, I have a rope's end of my own to wollop'em." And so he ran on, until it came in on me what he meant by twenty-pounders were those unhappy criminals who were sent over-seas to slavery in North America, or the still more unhappy innocents who were kidnapped or trepanned (as the word went) for private interest or vengeance.
But a short distance farther on I came to the rope's end at a point where five corridors met.
Ah, it's a fine dance--I'm with you there--and looks mighty like a hornpipe in a rope's end at Execution Dock by London town, it does.
But dashing the rattling lightning links to the deck, and snatching the burning harpoon, Ahab waved it like a torch among them; swearing to transfix with it the first sailor that but cast loose a rope's end. Petrified by his aspect, and still more shrinking from the fiery dart that he held, the men fell back in dismay, and Ahab again spoke: -- All your oaths to hunt the White Whale are as binding as mine; and heart, soul, and body, lungs and life, old Ahab is bound.
! if she belonged to me, I'd give her the rope's end as long as I could stand over her.
[legs]; for there was a big sea running; and Tootles, the bo'sun, was among them, with a rope's end in his hand and chewing tobacco.
Very much surprised was he when I made at him with the rope's end and cursed him for a little blood-thirsty imp.
Use a rope's end to lower yourself into the water so as to avoid a splash--you know.
Therefore pass these Sirens by, and stop your men's ears with wax that none of them may hear; but if you like you can listen yourself, for you may get the men to bind you as you stand upright on a cross piece half way up the mast, {99} and they must lash the rope's ends to the mast itself, that you may have the pleasure of listening.
Any other l out in Frank's situation would have been rope's ended by any other captain.
The funnel had gone overboard in one of the heavy rolls; two of their three boats had disap peared, washed away in bad weather, and the davits swung to and fro, unsecured, with chafed rope's ends waggling to the roll.
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