know the ropes

English

Verb

know the ropes (third-person singular simple present knows the ropes, present participle knowing the ropes, simple past knew the ropes, past participle known the ropes)

1. To have experience of the appropriate procedures; know how a particular task or job should be done (with reference to ropes used in sailing).
   • 1951 March, M. D. Greville, “The Nomenclature of Railway Stations”, in Railway Magazine, page 194:

     A traveller from Pontypridd to Llantrisant, not knowing the ropes, would naturally travel to the station of that name, only to find himself at Pont-y-Clun, two miles distant, and probably would not be at all soothed to discover that, had he alighted at the previous station (known as Cross Inn), he would have been within half a mile of his objective. [the station at Pontyclun was named Llantrisant before it closed, it later reopened as Pontyclun]

Related terms

• learn the ropes

References

• “to know the ropes”, in Collins English Dictionary.