Ropy/ropey

Ropy as a word meaning having the form of or suggestive of rope has been around since the late 1400s, but its modern colloquial meaning of poor or inferior quality only dates from 1942. This fairly modern usage is thought to derive from the RAF early in WWII. There are two contenders for its origin: one that it derives from the expression money for old rope, the other that it refers to the wire and rope that held early aircraft together.