rope-a-dope

English

rope-a-dope (plural rope-a-dopes)

(boxing) A technique in which the boxer assumes a defensive stance against the ropes and absorbs an opponent's blows, hoping to exploit eventual tiredness or a mistake.
- 1999, James W Hall, Tropical Freeze:
  He sounded like a retired boxer who'd specialized in the rope-a-dope.
- 2003, Steve Hamilton, North of Nowhere:
  I went into my own version of Ali's rope-a-dope, ducking as many of the heavy blows as I could, and waiting for some kind of idea to come to me.
(figuratively) Any strategy where an apparently losing position is assumed in the hope of eventual victory.
- 2002, Steven Hill, Fixing Elections:
  […] process that in recent years has degenerated, sadly, into one long scorched-earth campaign filled with partisan rancor and legislative rope-a-dope.
- 2007, Robert Shrum, No Excuses: Concessions of a Serial Campaigner:
  Maybe, I suggested, it was the old rope-a-dope to lower expectations, but that was tougher for him than it had been in 2000: He was now the president.

rope-a-dope (third-person singular simple present rope-a-dopes, present participle rope-a-doping, simple past and past participle rope-a-doped)

(figuratively) To exhaust someone by stringing them along.
Willis rope-a-doped us all night.