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

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Jovic contributed 10 points, four rebounds, two assists and one steal in the fourth quarter and the two overtimes, including an alley-oop assist to Ware to give the Heat a two-point lead with 33.5 seconds left in regulation before the Magic tied it to force overtime. —

Anthony Chiang, Miami Herald, 28 Jan. 2025 That group scored just two points on an alley-oop dunk by junior power forward Tafara Gapare against 16 points by Indiana’s bench. —

Edward Lee, Baltimore Sun, 26 Jan. 2025 That has freed up Gordon to operate on the perimeter more, knocking down 3s at a high clip and lobbing alley-oops to Jordan. —

Bennett Durando, The Denver Post, 25 Jan. 2025 Fears has been good all year, as evidenced as the timing on this alley-oop pass against Kansas. —

Brendan Marks, The Athletic, 17 Jan. 2025 See all Example Sentences for alley-oop

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