Delope (French for "throwing away") is the practice of throwing away one's first fire in a duel, in an attempt to abort the conflict. According to most traditions the deloper must first allow his opponent the opportunity to fire after the command ("present") is issued by the secondary, without hinting at his intentions. The Irish code duello forbits the practice of deloping explicitly. The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... A code duello is a set of rules for a one-on-one combat, or duel. ...

The delope could be attempted for practical reasons if one's opponent was thought to be superior in ability, or for moral reasons if the duelist had objections to attempting to kill their opponent.

For one's opponent to insist upon a second shot after a delope was considered bloodthirsty and unbecoming. Often, it would fall to the secondaries to immediately end the duel after a delope had been observed.

Notable uses

• William Pitt, Prime Minister of England chose to delope to indicate "moral superiority", having been forced into a duel with another member of parliament.^[1]

William Pitt could refer to: William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham; Prime Minister of Great Britain 1766-1768; often known as William Pitt the Elder William Pitt the Younger; his son; Prime Minister of Great Britain (1783-1801) and (1804-1806) William Pitt, Comptroller of the Household to King James...

In popular culture

• In Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon, Lyndon attempts the delope only to have his opponent insist upon a second fire, resulting in Lyndon's leg being amputated.

Barry Lyndon (1975) is a film by Stanley Kubrick based on the novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon by William Makepeace Thackeray. ...

In game theory

Deloping is the dominant strategy for the duelist with accuracy of 1/3 in the truel, who is given first fire, with rational opponents with accuracy of 1/2 and 1 respectively. Bold textItalic textLink titlelink title Headline text Media:Example. ...

References

• Flemming, Thomas. 1999. The Duel: Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, and the Future of America. New York: Perseus Books. ISBN 0465017363, p. 8-9.

Notes