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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

strip.

A long, thin piece of land; any long, thin area.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈstɹɪp/[ˈstɹ̝̊ʷɪp][ˈst̠ɹ̠̊˔ʷɪp]
  1. A long, thin piece of land; any long, thin area.

    countable
    The countries were in dispute over the ownership of a strip of desert about 100 metres wide.
  2. A long, thin piece of any material; any such material collectively.

    countable · sometimes · uncountable · usually
    Papier mache is made from strips of paper.
    Squeeze a strip of glue along the edge and then press down] firmly.
  3. A comic strip.

    countable · uncountable
  4. A landing strip.

    countable · uncountable
  5. A strip steak.

    countable · uncountable
  6. A street with multiple shopping or entertainment possibilities.

    US · countable · uncountable
  7. The playing area, roughly 14 meters by 2 meters.

    countable · uncountable
  8. The uniform of a football team, or the same worn by supporters.

    UK · countable · uncountable
  9. A trough for washing ore.

    countable · uncountable
  10. The issuing of a projectile from a rifled gun without acquiring the spiral motion.

    countable · uncountable
  11. A television series aired at the same time daily (or at least on Mondays to Fridays), so that it appears as a strip straight across the weekly schedule.

    countable · uncountable
  12. An investment strategy involving simultaneous trade with one call and two put options on the same security at the same strike price, similar to but more bearish than a straddle.

    countable · uncountable
  13. A strip club.

    countable · slang · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From alteration of stripe or from Middle Low German strippe, of uncertain ultimate origin, perhaps derived from a lost strong verb Proto-Germanic *strīpaną, with no clear cognates outside of Germanic except for Irish sríab (“line, stripe”).

verb/ˈstɹɪp/[ˈstɹ̝̊ʷɪp][ˈst̠ɹ̠̊˔ʷɪp]
  1. To remove or take away, often in strips or stripes.

    transitive
    Norm will strip the old varnish before painting the chair.
  2. To take off clothing.

    intransitive · usually
    Seeing that no one else was about, he stripped and dived into the river.
  3. To perform a striptease.

    intransitive
    In the seedy club, a group of drunken men were watching a woman stripping.
  4. To take away something from (someone or something); to plunder; to divest.

    transitive
    The athlete was stripped of his medal after failing a drugs test.
    They had stripped the forest bare, with not a tree left standing.
  5. To remove cargo from (a container).

    transitive
  6. To remove (the thread or teeth) from a screw, nut, or gear, especially inadvertently by overtightening.

    transitive
    Don't tighten that bolt any more or you'll strip the thread.
    The screw is stripped.
  7. To fail in the thread; to lose the thread, as a bolt, screw, or nut.

    intransitive
  8. To fire (a bullet or ball) from a rifle such that it fails to pick up a spin from the rifling.

    transitive
  9. To fail to pick up a spin from the grooves in a rifle barrel.

    intransitive
  10. To remove color from hair, cloth, etc. to prepare it to receive new color.

    transitive
  11. To remove all cards of a particular suit from another player. (See also strip-squeeze.)

    transitive
  12. To empty (tubing) by applying pressure to the outside of (the tubing) and moving that pressure along (the tubing).

    transitive
  13. To milk a cow, especially by stroking and compressing the teats to draw out the last of the milk.

    transitive
  14. To press out the ripe roe or milt from fishes, for artificial fecundation.

  15. To run a television series at the same time daily (or at least on Mondays to Fridays), so that it appears as a strip straight across the weekly schedule.

    transitive
  16. To pare off the surface of (land) in strips.

    transitive
  17. To remove the overlying earth from (a deposit).

    transitive
  18. To pass; to get clear of; to outstrip.

    obsolete · transitive
  19. To remove the insulation from a wire/cable.

  20. To remove the metal coating from (a plated article), as by acids or electrolytic action.

  21. To remove fibre, flock, or lint from; said of the teeth of a card when it becomes partly clogged.

  22. To pick the cured leaves from the stalks of (tobacco) and tie them into “hands”.

  23. To remove the midrib from (tobacco leaves).

Where this word comes from

From Middle English strepen, strippen, from Old English strīepan (“plunder”), from Proto-Germanic *strēpōną, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ter(h₁)- (“to be stiff; be rigid; exert”). Probably related to German Strafe (“deprivation, fine, punishment”).

noun/ˈstɹɪp/[ˈstɹ̝̊ʷɪp][ˈst̠ɹ̠̊˔ʷɪp]
  1. The act of removing one's clothes; a striptease.

    She stood up on the table and did a strip.
  2. Denotes a version of a game in which losing players must progressively remove their clothes.

    attributive
    strip poker; strip Scrabble
Where this word comes from

From Middle English strepen, strippen, from Old English strīepan (“plunder”), from Proto-Germanic *strēpōną, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ter(h₁)- (“to be stiff; be rigid; exert”). Probably related to German Strafe (“deprivation, fine, punishment”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.