strip

STRIP/stɹɪp/

38 meanings of strip

1
nouncountable or uncountable
A long, narrow piece of any material, or that material considered collectively.
He tore a strip of bandage and wrapped it around his ankle.
The factory produces steel in long strips for the automotive industry.
Similarband, ribbon, piece, slip, shred
Note
Usually you count these pieces: strips of paper, a strip of glue. In workshop talk, though, the word can name the material itself, uncounted, as in "I have some strip left over after fitting out the kitchen." That mass use, with no a and no plural, treats strip like timber or wire. It is something you have some of, rather than pieces you count.
2
nouncountable
A long, narrow piece of land, or any long, narrow area.
A strip of fertile soil ran along the riverbank.
Developers bought a strip of coastline for the new resort.
Similarband, belt, stretch, swath, ribbon
Note
Two separate words share this spelling. The noun of narrow pieces is perhaps an alteration of stripe or a borrowing of Middle Low German strippe, and its deeper origin is uncertain. The verb meaning "remove" has a different ancestry altogether. In this sense the word nearly always takes of and a following noun: a strip of desert, a strip of coastline, a strip of fertile soil.
3
verbtransitive
To remove something, often by peeling it away in strips or bands.
Crews strip the topsoil before laying the foundation.
She stripped the old varnish from the antique table.
Similarremove, peel, scrape, clear
Oppositeapply, add
Note
The verb is a different word from the noun, despite the strips it so often leaves behind. It descends from Old English strīepan, "plunder," and is probably related to German Strafe, "punishment, fine." With this sense the object is the thing that comes off: strip the varnish, strip the topsoil. In the "plunder" sense, the object is what is left bare.
4
verbintransitive
To take off one's clothes, removing some or all of what one is wearing.
Patients are asked to strip before the examination.
She stripped quickly and dove into the pool.
Similarundress, disrobe
Oppositedress
Note
Usually used without an object: he stripped and dived into the river. When someone is made to undress, the usual construction is forced them to strip. The pairing strip naked is old; John Skelton writes "he strypte naked" early in the 1500s. Undressing as a show for an audience belongs to the striptease sense.
5
verbtransitive
To take something away from a person or thing; to plunder or divest.
The committee stripped the athlete of her medals after the scandal.
Invaders strip conquered towns of everything valuable.
Similardeprive, divest, plunder, rob, loot
Oppositerestore, grant
Note
The construction to know is strip someone of something: stripped of his medal, stripped of a title. Without of, the object is the place or thing left bare, as in a forest stripped bare or a car stripped by morning. The King James Bible of 1611 uses the spelling stript and a different preposition: "They stript Joseph out of his coat."
6
nounUScountable or uncountable
A street lined with many shops, restaurants, and entertainment venues.
The Las Vegas strip draws millions of visitors each year.
They opened a new club on the strip last spring.
Similardrag, boulevard, street
7
nouncountable or uncountable
A sequence of drawings in boxes that tell a story or joke, as found in newspapers.
The newspaper canceled the long-running strip after thirty years.
He submitted his first strip to the editor last week.
Similarcomic, cartoon
8
nouncountable
The act of removing one's clothes, especially as a performance; a striptease.
The performer ended the night with a slow strip.
Audiences paid extra to watch the famous strip.
Similarstriptease
9
verbintransitive
To take off one's clothes as an erotic or theatrical performance.
She began to strip as the music slowed.
The performers strip under colored lights each night.
Similarundress, disrobe
Oppositedress
10
nouncountable or uncountable
A long, flat area of ground used for aircraft to take off and land.
The pilot circled before landing on the remote strip.
Engineers graded a new strip for the cargo planes.
Similarrunway, airfield

11
verbtransitive
To remove the protective insulation from a wire or cable, exposing the conductor.
The electrician strips each wire before fitting the connector.
Always strip the cable carefully to avoid nicking the metal.
Similarbare, skin
Oppositeinsulate
12
verbtransitive
To damage the thread or teeth of a screw, nut, or gear, often by overtightening it.
She stripped the threads on the nut with the power drill.
Overtightening will strip the gear teeth quickly.
Note
Mechanics use the word both with an object and without one. You strip a thread by overtightening, and the result is a stripped screw, with the past participle used as an adjective: "The screw is stripped." The thread can also give way by itself, as in the intransitive use: the bolt stripped. Either way, the word implies damage, usually done by accident.
13
verbtransitive
To remove existing color from hair, cloth, or similar material to prepare it for new dye.
The stylist stripped the color from her hair to start fresh.
They strip the old dye from the wool before recoloring it.
Similarremove, lift, bleach
Oppositedye, color
14
nounbefore a noun
Applied to a game to denote a version in which losing players must progressively remove their clothes.
Strip poker turns an ordinary card game into a risqué dare.
Someone proposed strip darts, and the room erupted in laughter.
Note
Put it in front of almost any game and the game gains a forfeit: strip poker, strip Scrabble, strip darts. The pattern is productive, and speakers coin new pairings freely, as with "Strip Monopoly" in Victor Miller's Friday the 13th (1980). The modifier works only before the game's name; nobody says poker strip.
15
verbintransitive
Of a bolt, screw, or nut, to fail because its thread has worn away.
The bolt stripped before it was fully tight.
These nuts strip if you force them.
16
nouncountable or uncountable
A tender steak cut from the short loin section of beef.
He grilled the strip until it reached a perfect medium rare.
Diners can pair a strip with a baked potato for under twenty dollars.
17
nounslangcountable or uncountable
An informal name for a club featuring striptease performances for its patrons.
They wandered out of the strip well after closing time.
A bouncer guarded the door of the strip on the corner.
Note
A clipped slang form: strip club drops its second word, and the strip becomes the place itself. It belongs to casual speech and song lyrics. Armani White's 2022 track "Billie Eilish" uses it this way, for being inside the club. It is best kept out of formal writing. Context does the disambiguating, because "the strip" can just as easily mean a busy nightlife street.
18
nounUKcountable or uncountable
The uniform worn by an association football team, or the same outfit worn by the team's supporters.
The club unveiled a retro strip to mark its centenary season.
Half the crowd turned up wearing the famous red strip.
Similarkit, uniform, colors, jersey, shirt
Note
British football talk uses this where an American would say uniform or jersey. It covers what the players wear on the pitch and the replica shirts fans wear in the stands. It usually comes with a word in front that says which outfit is meant: the home strip, the away strip, a club's new strip for the season.
19
nouncountable or uncountable
A television series broadcast in the same time slot each day, or at least on weekdays, so it runs straight across the weekly schedule.
Programmers turned the talk show into a strip to steady its ratings.
The afternoon strip held the same audience five days a week.
Note
Trade writing pairs this with across-the-board. Billboard reported in 1955 that ABC-TV was "opening up its 4-5 across-the-board strip," a daytime hour filled the same way every day. Programmers also talk of stripping a show, a verb built on the same picture of one band running across the week.
20
verbtransitive
To broadcast a television series in the same daily time slot, so it appears straight across the weekly schedule.
The network plans to strip the new quiz show across all five weekdays.
Executives chose to strip the drama nightly to lock in a loyal audience.
Note
Network executives use the verb with across or with an adverb of frequency: strip a quiz show across the weekdays, strip a drama nightly. It turns the scheduling noun into an action. The aim is habit, so that viewers know where to find a program five days running.
21
verbtransitive
To unload and remove all the cargo from a freight container.
Dockhands strip the container and stack the pallets in the warehouse.
Customs ordered the crew to strip every container for inspection.
Similarunload, unpack, empty
Oppositeload, pack, stuff
22
verbtransitive
To empty a length of tubing by pressing on its outer surface and sliding that pressure along it.
The nurse showed me how to strip the chest tube every hour.
Technicians strip the line whenever a clot threatens to block the flow.
Similarmilk
23
verbtransitive
To remove the soil and rock covering a mineral deposit so it can be reached.
Operators strip the overburden to expose the coal seam below.
Before mining begins, contractors strip the earth covering the ore body.
Similarremove, clear, excavate
24
verbtransitive
To pare off the surface of land in long, narrow strips.
Before reseeding, the groundskeepers strip the worn field in long bands and stack the sod for compost.
The settlers stripped the heath in narrow swaths, burned the turf, and spread the ash over the bare ground.
Similarpare, skim, skin, peel
Note
Farmers who strip land work in bands rather than across a whole field. The practice usually leaves untilled ground between the cut strips, as in strip cropping and strip tillage. The bands left alone trap soil and slow erosion by wind and water.
25
verbtransitive
To remove the metal plating from an object, using acids, electrolysis, or similar means.
The refinisher uses a mild acid to strip the nickel from the antique fittings.
Electrolytic baths strip the plating from rejected parts before they are recoated.
Similarremove, dissolve
Oppositeplate, coat
26
verbtransitive
To draw the final milk from a cow by stroking and compressing the teats.
Dairy hands strip each cow after the machine finishes, emptying the udder.
She learned to strip the teats slowly, coaxing out the richest milk.
Similarmilk
27
verbtransitive
To remove from an opponent all the cards of a particular suit, leaving them unable to follow it.
Declarer aimed to strip West of his clubs before throwing him in.
By the tenth trick she had managed to strip both defenders of diamonds.
Note
Bridge players strip a defender as preparation, not as an end in itself. Once an opponent holds no cards in a suit, declarer can throw that player in on lead. The defender, with no safe card to play, must then concede a trick. Stripping is typically the groundwork for an endplay or a strip-squeeze.
28
nouncountable or uncountable
The long, narrow playing area for a fencing bout, roughly 14 meters by 2 meters.
The referee signaled both fencers back to the center of the strip.
A touch landed just as her opponent retreated off the end of the strip.
Similarpiste
Note
Fencing's name for its field of play, which the sport also calls the piste. It is marked with warning lines and rear limit lines that govern retreats, and a fencer who crosses the rear boundary is penalized. Fencers speak of being on the strip, at its center or at its end. The word keeps the shape of any long, narrow area and gives it fixed dimensions.
29
nouncountable or uncountable
A trough in which ore is washed to separate the valuable minerals from waste.
The crew tipped buckets of gravel into the strip to separate the ore.
Water ran steadily through the strip, carrying off the lighter waste.
Similarsluice, trough
Note
A mining word for a piece of washing equipment. Water runs steadily along the trough and carries off the lighter waste, while the denser mineral settles along the bottom to be recovered. Keep it apart from stripping away overlying earth. That is also a mining term, but it is a verb with its own Old English history. This noun belongs with the long, narrow shapes of the other noun senses.
30
verbtransitive
To pick the cured leaves from tobacco stalks and tie them into bundles known as 'hands'.
Hired hands strip the cured tobacco and bind the leaves into neat hands.
After curing, the growers strip each stalk and sort the leaves by grade.
31
noun
A shot in which the bullet or shell leaves a rifled barrel without spinning because it failed to grip the grooves.
32
noun
An options strategy that buys a call and two puts on one security at an identical strike price, like a straddle but betting more on a fall.
33
verb
To send a bullet or shot through a rifle's barrel so that it slips past the grooves and comes out without spinning.
34
verb
Of a bullet or shell, to leave a rifled barrel without taking on spin from its grooves.
35
verb
To squeeze mature eggs or sperm from fish so people can fertilize the eggs artificially.
36
verbobsolete
To get past or ahead of something, leaving it behind.
when first they stripp'd the Malean promontory
1618, George Chapman, A Hymn to Apollo
37
verb
To clean the clogged wire teeth of a carding machine or hand card by removing trapped fiber and fluff.
38
verb
To pull the tough central rib out of each tobacco leaf before processing.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of strip apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origins

Meanings 1–2, 6–7, 10, 16–19, 28–29

This may be an alteration of "stripe," or it may come from Middle Low German "strippe," whose ultimate origin is uncertain: perhaps from a lost strong verb, Proto-Germanic *strīpaną, with no clear relatives outside Germanic except Irish "sríab" (line, stripe).

Meanings 3–5, 8–9, 11–15, 20–27, 30

It comes from Middle English "strepen, strippen," from Old English "strīepan" (to plunder), from Proto-Germanic *strēpōną and the Proto-Indo-European root *(s)ter(h₁)- (to be stiff or rigid; to exert). It is probably related to German "Strafe" (deprivation, fine, punishment).