# What does ‘learn the ropes’ mean?

To “learn the ropes” means to learn how a job or system works. Brewer's records this as originally a nautical idiom, describing an apprentice sailor learning the many ropes of a sailing ship's rigging.

## What it means

- Brewer's records this as originally a nautical idiom, describing an apprentice sailor learning the many ropes of a sailing ship's rigging.

## Action steps

1. Standard onboarding language.
2. Example: Give her a week to learn the ropes.

## Sources

- [Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898) — Internet Archive scan](https://archive.org/details/brewers-dictionary-of-phrase-and-fable)

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