alley-oop

noun

al·​ley-oop ˌa-lē-ˈyüp 

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

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

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

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