Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Basketball A play in which a pass is lobbed above the basket and a player jumps up and attempts to catch the ball and score before returning to the floor.
- n. Basketball The pass made in such a play.
- interj. Used to signal the start of a strenuous activity, such as lifting.
Etymologies
- French allez-oop, cry of circus acrobat about to leap, from allez, pl. imperative of aller, to go, from Old French aler, to walk; see alley1. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Long before the term alley-oop became synonymous with dunking a basketball, San Francisco wide receiver R. C. Owens invented the play on Kezar's turf, using his leaping ability to snag lobs in the end zone from Tittle.”
“Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo threw the ball away while looking for a wide-open Allen on a breakaway—but Rondo did acquit himself nicely when he inbounded an alley-oop straight to Garnett for a dunk that cut the Knicks' lead to one and set up Allen's game-winner.”
“The dunking machine grabbed the ball with one hand and slammed it in for the incredible alley-oop.”
The Huffington Post: WATCH: Dunking Sensation Slams One-Handed Alley-Oop
“The red team took an early 6-0 lead, with Morrison hitting Ndiaye for an alley-oop dunk, Arenas blowing past Wall for an easy layup and Palmer knocking down a long jumper.”
The Washington Post: John Wall looks impressive in evening scrimmages
“Newcomer Kirk Hinrich played some serious defense on Wall, Wall connected with JaVale McGee for several alley-oop dunks, Young buried several contested jumpers, and Arenas provided some flashes of his old (No. 0) self.”
The Washington Post: Midnight Tip-Off more marketing savvy, than madness
“DJ duo Oh Snap!! and Ratt Moze set up Mr. Nasty with an alley-oop for the Tuesday night dunk at DC9.”
“They had energy on Friday, however, and it was on display most notably in the second quarter when Marvin Williams threw a high alley-oop to forward Josh Smith for a hard, athletic slam dunk.”
The Wall Street Journal: Deflated Knicks Fall to Hawks on the Road
“Foye lobbed it in the air and Griffin jumped up, grabbed the ball with one hand and dunked it for the alley-oop.”
The Huffington Post: Blake Griffin Slams One-Handed Alley-Oop In Preseason Game (VIDEO)
“Wall hit Griffin with two alley-oop passes in the first half, but dazzled the thousands of children in magenta T-Mobile jerseys with a highlight that should get repeated several times this weekend: Wall received an outlet pass just beyond half court, took a step, then bounced the ball off the court.”
The Washington Post: John Wall wins MVP, sets assist record in Rookie Challenge victory
“Note also that last year the Celts were an abysmal alley-oop team.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘alley-oop’.
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Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
unfathomably, glice, cuh, fab, ciggaty, doll, thuggin, oxymoronic, pineapple, succubutt, griming, cheeky and 3063 more... -
Cat Kisses Favorites
leprechaunic hair, a dinky grin, strangled giggle, a waft of words, comatose fun, a grisly shooting..., jim bag clothes, to quench and fuss, shutter hole, tearful sludge, dead-eye blue, coughing curtains... and 97 more...
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oddball
wackadoodlery.
( personal list )
related (from me):
http://www.wordnik.com/lists/onomatopoeias--1
bric-a-brac, succotash, humbucker, skedaddle, scallywag, sassafras, gadzooks, humdinger, hoity-toity, wishy-washy, namby-pamby, ding dong and 456 more...
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around bend words
IE roots ank-, ant- and others
angle, ankle, ankylosaur, england, anchor, ancon, elbow, ankylosis, ancylostomiasis, hook, uncinate, uncus and 66 more...
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Dewdroppers, Waldos, and Slackers
A decade-by-decade guide to the vanishing vocabulary of the 20th century. From Rosemarie Ostler's book of the same name.
nickelodeon, ivory tickler, alley-oop, horse opera, gun opera, boffo, boston version, jitney, cakewalk, tin lizzie, automobubbling, shirtwaist and 21 more...
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A is for Agent Orange
My A words
abracadabra, agent orange, akimbo, ale, algorithm, anachronism, anachronistic, ankle-biter, ants in your pants, appaloosa, applejack, applesauce and 40 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for alley-oop.
reesetee Haha! Oct 16, 2008
gangerh Makes a topical palindrome! Oct 16, 2008
reesetee I suspect most people are glad of that. ;-> Oct 16, 2008
skipvia *Sigh* They don't write 'em like that anymore... Oct 16, 2008
reesetee He got a big ugly club and a head fulla hairuh. . . . Oct 16, 2008
bilby Shame about basketball sinking its claws into this. Happens, 'spose. Oct 16, 2008
skipvia He'll knuckle your head before you count to foh-wah... Oct 16, 2008
reesetee Earworm! Oct 16, 2008
skipvia And (without the hyphen) a song by the Hollywood Argyles, after the comic strip of the same name. Oct 15, 2008
catkisses Now, mostly a basketball term Oct 15, 2008
sionnach an acrobatic act, from French 'allez', and English 'up'. Aug 6, 2008