Is roperipe an actual word, or a misspelling? It's in the M-W entry for villain,
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/thesaurus?book=Thesaurus&va=villain. I thought it might be a misspelling, having just found one in Merriam-Webster: I went to their thesaurus for the word knave (I plead the 5th. Amendment on why), and found the word villian highlighted. When I clicked on it, surprise surprise, "No entries found that match villian." M-W doesn't have roperipe, nor did Google find it.

Roperipe meaning gallowsbait?

Brilliant, Dr Bill! I'd looked it up at Bartleby.com with no luck. That's got to be what it means. Can someone (tsuwm, Faldage, anyone?) get us a history?

not to put too fine a point on it, it breaks down to "ripe for the rope". as an adjective, "deserving to be hung"; as a noun, simply "a rascal".
-ron o.

a term like jailbait. is that used in UK?.. here in US there are laws concerning "the age of consent" it varies from state to state, but basically a girl under 14 to 16 is considered to young to be able to consent to sex, and even if she give verbal consent, a man can be held for statutory rape. Most often, its is not prosocuted, (speaking for NY here,) unless the man in question is more than 5 years older-- Wait, rereading, i realized i was being sexist, the law applies to both young men and women, not just women!
so a 16 year old guy could get away with sex with a 14 year old (even though she is under age of consent) but a 20 year old guy couldn't.. the courts have held that kids who know each other through school/siblings/are close in age, are not taking unfair advantage, but a adults should know better.

young girls who dress and behave like adults are jail bait.(i have never heard the term applied to a young guy!)

(i have never heard the term applied to a young guy!)

No, that's what a toyboy is.

I've only ever heard boytoy - referring to a man significantly younger than the woman, eg, Ashton Kutcher is Demi's boytoy. Can't say I've heard it used in quite the same context as jailbait, but I guess it could be.

Is this word pronounced as, rope-uh-ripe or rope-ripe? I'd go with the former; it is softer.

I'd stick with rope-ripe; the definition ain't gentle.

It shure ain't gentle--and, for the roperipe, the outcome ain't either.

Is that what you musicians call a dying fall - or should that be autumnal decline? [/xthread]

Then there was the friend of a friend of mine who was wearing a Vernal Falls T shirt.
(http://www.lateaugust.com/images/vernalfalls.jpg)

I asked him if it was near Autumnal Springs. He had no idea what I was talking about.

Nurse: Marry farewell. Pray what saucie merchant was
this that was so full of his roperipe?

Romeo: A gentleman, Nurse, that loues to heare himselfe
talke, and will speake more in an houre than hee will stand
to in a month.

Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene 4.

Well done, that man - knew I'd heard it somewhere!

Sorry, dears. Just got back yesterday from a week serving as chaplain at a church summer camp to 125 wildly pre-adolescent children. Whew. A return to the pleasures of etymology and literature is a great (if tardy) relief.