alley-oop

noun

al·​ley-oop ˌa-lē-ˈyüp How to pronounce alley-oop (audio)
plural alley-oops
1
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
2
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 And when Green tried to creep over to double team him, Davis found Jaxson Hayes for an alley-oop. Danny Emerman, The Mercury News, 15 Oct. 2024 That one resulted in an alley-oop from Jokic to his future Hall-of-Fame teammate. Bennett Durando, The Denver Post, 13 Oct. 2024 The audience doesn’t just hand you an alley-oop slam dunk every time. Lacey Rose, The Hollywood Reporter, 13 Aug. 2024 James capped the scoring streak with a no-look, alley-oop pass to Jayson Tatum on an out-of-bounds play, zipping the ball toward the rim where the Boston Celtics star slammed it with two hands. Thuc Nhi Nguyen, Los Angeles Times, 6 Aug. 2024 See all Example Sentences for alley-oop 

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

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Dictionary Entries Near alley-oop

Cite this Entry

“Alley-oop.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/alley-oop. Accessed 4 Nov. 2024.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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