twopenny rope
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Sense 1
A rope stretched out in a low doss-house in order to suspend a kind of hammock of sacking on which a person can sleep.
Register: slang
Sources & notes
Adapted from English Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30 via kaikki.org).
Sense 2
a lodging-house of the lowest kind, where tramps and cadgers sleep on sacking stretched by means of ropes. Sleeping at these places is called having "twopenn’orth of rope."
Era: ca. 1874 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Historical definition reproduced from Hotten’s The Slang Dictionary (1874, public domain; Project Gutenberg #42108, retrieved 2026-07-31). Reflects the attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “twopenny rope” mean?
A rope stretched out in a low doss-house in order to suspend a kind of hammock of sacking on which a person can sleep.
Is “twopenny rope” formal or informal?
twopenny rope is generally slang.