ope

Open.

Adjective

  1. Open.
    • Arriving there, as did by chaunce befall, / He found the gate wyde ope […]. - 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, VI.6:
    • We are all weary — faint — set ope the doors — I will to bed! — To-morrow — - 1819, John Keats, Otho the Great, act 5, scene 5, verses 191-192:
    • On Sunday heaven's gate stands ope. - [1633], George Herbert, edited by [Nicholas Ferrar], The Temple. Sacred Poems, and Private Ejaculations, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Thomas Buck and Roger Daniel; and are to be...

Origin

From Middle English ope (“open”), shortened form of open, from Old English open (“open”). More at open.

Forms

more ope most ope

Interjection

  1. An exclamation of surprise; oops.
    • Ope! Sorry about that.
    • Ope, let me just squeeze past ya there.
    • We're Midwesterners. We like long walks through frozen cornfields. Ope! Watch out! - 2024 January 27, Charlie Berens and Myles Montplaisir, We're Midwesterners:

Origin

Representing oh pronounced with the mouth snapped closed at the end (IPA⁽ᵏᵉʸ⁾: /oʊp/, [oʊp̚]) (excrescent /p/). Compare yep, yup, nope, and welp.

Noun Philippines, abbreviation

  1. Clipping of operations, in terms of an organization.

Noun West Country

  1. An alley or narrow passage (an opening between houses, buildings, etc).
    • Tonkin's Ope
    • It formed part of the extensive network of opes across the city which used to carry dock workers down to the quay for work on the boats in the bustling Port of Truro. - 2018 October 4, Lee Trewhela, “The secrets of...
    • Opes / A characteristic that Truro shares with other Cornish towns are the narrow passageways which often form shortcuts between streets. […] These include Roberts Ope, Tippet's Backlet (Tippet was the owner of a...

Forms

opes

Derived

opelet opetide

Verb

  1. To open.
    • Ere I ope his letter, / I pray you, tell me how my good friend doth. - c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First...
    • The hour's now come, the very minute bids thee ope thine ear; obey and be attentive. - 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […]...
    • There came into many a burgher's pate / A text which says that heaven's gate / Opes to the rich at as easy rate / As the needle's eye takes a camel in! - 1842, Robert Browning, The Pied Piper of Hamelin:

Forms

opes oping oped