How to Use on the ropes in a Sentence

on the ropes

phrase

• Opponents called the move a stunt and a sign Farage is on the ropes.
  — ABC News, 8 July 2026
• Whisenhunt had been on the ropes since a two-run first in which Tatis led off with a double and scored on Machado’s sacrifice fly to left.
  — Jeff Sanders, San Diego Union-Tribune, 1 Aug. 2026
• Sarah Stier / Getty Images But in the fifth, with Makhachev seemingly on the ropes, the champion showed his heart.
  — Mark Puleo, New York Times, 16 Aug. 2026
• That only loss came to Shavkat Rakhmonov in 2024 when Garry had Rakhmonov on the ropes and in a deep submission attempt late in that fight.
  — Brett Appley, New York Times, 15 Aug. 2026
• For the first time in years, Ukraine appears to have Russia on the ropes, and no supplier of weapons, foreign or domestic, is doing more than Shtilerman to keep it there.
  — Simon Shuster, The Atlantic, 17 July 2026
• One of the best teams that baseball has ever seen, the Blue Jays had the Dodgers on the ropes after Bichette hit a three-run homer to pull Toronto ahead in the bottom of the third.
  — Abbey Mastracco, New York Daily News, 29 June 2026
• Infantino on the ropes The soccer body — which has a longstanding rivalry with FIFA over who gets to control soccer and its riches — also continued to call for Infantino's ouster.
  — Rafael Nam, NPR, 6 Aug. 2026
• There is of course no guarantee that any deal with the Taliban would have been possible had al-Qaeda been defeated and bin Laden captured in 2001, or when bin Laden was killed and the Taliban were on the ropes in 2011.
  — Foreign Affairs, 18 Aug. 2026
• Analysts credit the 2011 purchase of NBCUniversal as a huge success; Comcast rescued a company that was on the ropes due to General Electric’s under-investment.
  — Meg James, Los Angeles Times, 2 July 2026