alley-oop

noun

al·ley-oop ˌa-lē-ˈyüp

plural alley-oops

basketball : a play in which a leaping player catches a pass above the basket and immediately dunks the ball

The meeting of man and ball was dazzling, the two handed alley-oop slam-dunk spectacular.—

Shelly Smith

also : the usually high, arcing pass thrown on such a play

He threw an alley-oop to George Lynch on a fast break … —

The New York Times

American football : a play in which the quarterback throws a high, arcing pass into the end zone to be caught by a leaping receiver

Quarterback Moore hooked up with receiver Moore on one of their patented alley-oops to make the score 20-7.—

Austin Murphy

also : the pass itself

… an alley-oop pass to Chandler from Manning gave the Saints a 13-7 lead. —

Larry McMillen

… he … tossed an alley-oop to Tate Casey for the first touchdown pass of his college career. —

USA Today

alley-oop verb, transitive + intransitive

alley-ooped; alley-ooping; alley-oops

… they dribbled around us, passed behind their backs, and alley-ooped for a bunch of slam dunks. —

D. J. MacHale

Rob alley-ooped the ball toward the basket. —

Stanley Gordon West

On the opening drive of the third quarter, Flacco basically alley-ooped a pass from the 7, and Heap outmuscled safety Tyrone Carter for the ball in the rear right corner of the end zone. —

Edward Lee

Examples of alley-oop in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Samson Johnson put on a dunking exhibition, throwing one down off an inbound alley-oop pass and another after Castle made his first 3-pointer of the game to extend UConn’s lead to 20. —

Joe Arruda, Hartford Courant, 14 June 2024 After scoring the game’s first basket with a long 3-pointer, Porzingis made three of his five first-quarter field goals on Tatum assists, including on a slick pick-and-roll and later on a short alley-oop. —

Peter Sblendorio, New York Daily News, 14 June 2024 Doncic delivered the dagger a minute later as Mike Conley tried to throw up an alley-oop lob to Gobert, but it was picked off by Doncic. —

Steven Johnson, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 23 May 2024 Draymond Green stonewalled Zion Williamson inside before tossing an alley-oop off the glass to Trayce Jackson-Davis. —

Danny Emerman, The Mercury News, 13 Apr. 2024 New Orleans led 98-89 at the end of the third quarter and blew the game open early in the fourth McCollum hit a 3-pointer to put New Orleans up 118-100 and Cody Zeller threw down an alley-oop dunk to push the lead to 20, sending thousands of fans to the exits with 6:48 remaining. —

Jason Anderson, Sacramento Bee, 12 Apr. 2024 Then Rosero and Memo Rodriguez teamed up for what felt like an alley-oop off a corner kick. —

Daniel Sperry, Kansas City Star, 7 Apr. 2024 Swatting George’s first-quarter jumper and throwing down a nifty fast-break alley-oop from Tre Mann over him certainly proved that. —

Roderick Boone, Charlotte Observer, 1 Apr. 2024 Fox opened the fourth quarter with another 3 and then threw down an alley-oop dunk from Malik Monk off a steal from Ellis. —

Chris Biderman, Sacramento Bee, 24 Mar. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'alley-oop.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

alteration of allez-oop, cry of a circus acrobat about to leap, probably from French allez, 2nd person plural imperative of aller to go + English -oop, perhaps alteration of up

First Known Use

1965, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Time Traveler

The first known use of alley-oop was in 1965

See more words from the same year