strip

¹ American  

[strip] / strɪp /

verb (used with object)

stripped, stript, stripping

1. to deprive of covering.

   Strip the peel off that orange.

   Synonyms:

   decorticate, peel, uncover

2. to deprive of clothing; make bare or naked.

   They stripped him and gave him new clothes befitting his station.

   Synonyms:

   denude

3. to take away or remove.

   I need to strip the sheets from the bed and wash them.

4. to deprive or divest.

   The lightning stripped the tree of its bark.

   The organization will strip him of all privileges.

5. to clear out or empty.

   Thieves may strip a house of all its contents.

6. to deprive of equipment; dismantle.

   If we strip the ship of rigging, we can repair it.

   Antonyms:

   furnish, equip, supply

7. to dispossess, rob, or plunder.

   The highwaymen stripped the man of his possessions.

   Synonyms:

   despoil

8. to remove varnish, paint, wax, or the like from.

   The wood should be stripped and then refinished.

9. to separate the leaves from the stalks of (tobacco).

10. to remove the midrib, as from tobacco leaves.

11. Machinery. to break off the thread of (a screw, bolt, etc.) or the teeth of (a gear), as by applying too much force.

12. to remove the mold from (an ingot).

13. to draw the last milk from (a cow), especially by a stroking and compressing movement.

14. to draw out (milk) in this manner.

15. Photoengraving. to remove (the emulsion from a film base) in order to place it on a glass plate for exposure to the metal plate.

16. Textiles.

    1. to clean (a carding roller) by removing waste fibers.

    2. to transfer (fibers) from one carding roller to another.

    3. to remove (color) from a cloth or yarn in order to redye it another color.

    4. to remove color from (a cloth or yarn).

17. Bridge. to lead successively winning cards from (a hand) in order to dispose of as many cards as necessary preparatory to surrendering the lead to an opponent so that any card the opponent plays will be to their disadvantage.

18. Mining. to strip-mine.

19. Chemistry. to remove the most volatile components from, as by distillation or evaporation.

20. Finance. to split (a bond) for selling separately as a principal certificate and as interest coupons.

21. Surgery. to remove (a vein) by pulling it inside out through a small incision, using a long, hooked instrument.

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verb (used without object)

stripped, stript, stripping

1. to strip something.

   They do not contain harsh detergents, such as sulfates, that can irritate, strip or dehydrate.

   When dealing with furniture stain, I always strip as gently as possible.

2. to remove one's clothes.

3. to perform a striptease.

4. to become stripped.

   Bananas strip easily.

noun

1. a striptease.

strip ² American  

[strip] / strɪp /

noun

1. a narrow piece, comparatively long and usually of uniform width.

   a strip of cloth, metal, land, etc.

2. a continuous series of drawings or pictures illustrating incidents, conversation, etc., as a comic strip.

3. Aeronautics.

   1. an airstrip; runway.

   2. landing strip.

4. Philately. three or more stamps joined either in a horizontal or vertical row.

5. Informal. striplight.

6. (sometimes initial capital letter) a road, street, or avenue, usually in a city or a main thoroughfare between outlying suburbs, densely lined on both sides by a large variety of retail stores, gas stations, restaurants, bars, etc..

   Sunset Strip in Los Angeles.

7. strip steak.

8. drag strip.

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verb (used with object)

stripped, stripping

1. to cut, tear, or form into strips.

2. Printing. to combine (a piece of film) with another, especially for making a combination plate of lines and halftones.

3. to broadcast (a television series) in multiple related segments, as daily from Monday through Friday.

strip ¹ British  

/ strɪp /

verb

1. to take or pull (the covering, clothes, etc) off (oneself, another person, or thing)

   to strip a wall

   to strip a bed

2. (intr)

   1. to remove all one's clothes

   2. to perform a striptease

3. (tr) to denude or empty completely

4. (tr) to deprive

   he was stripped of his pride

5. (tr) to rob or plunder

6. (tr) to remove (paint, varnish, etc) from (a surface, furniture, etc) by sanding, with a solvent, etc

   stripped pine

7. Also: pluck. (tr) to pull out the old coat of hair from (dogs of certain long- and wire-haired breeds)

8. 1. to remove the leaves from the stalks of (tobacco, etc)

   2. to separate the two sides of a leaf from the stem of (tobacco, etc)

9. (tr) agriculture to draw the last milk from each of the teats of (a cow)

10. to dismantle (an engine, mechanism, etc)

11. to tear off or break (the thread) from (a screw, bolt, etc) or (the teeth) from (a gear)

12. (often foll by down) to remove the accessories from (a motor vehicle)

    his car was stripped down

13. to remove (the most volatile constituent) from (a mixture of liquids) by boiling, evaporation, or distillation

14. printing (usually foll by in) to combine (pieces of film or paper) to form a composite sheet from which a plate can be made

15. (tr) (in freight transport) to unpack (a container) See also stuffing and stripping

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noun

1. the act or an instance of undressing or of performing a striptease

strip ² British  

/ strɪp /

noun

1. a relatively long, flat, narrow piece of something

2. short for airstrip

3. philately a horizontal or vertical row of three or more unseparated postage stamps

4. the clothes worn by the members of a team, esp a football team

5. commerce a triple option on a security or commodity consisting of one call option and two put options at the same price and for the same period Compare strap

6. short for dosing strip

7. informal to rebuke (someone) angrily

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verb

1. to cut or divide into strips

Synonym Usage

Strip, deprive, dispossess, divest imply more or less forcibly taking something away from someone. To strip is to take something completely (often violently) from a person or thing so as to leave in a destitute or powerless state: to strip a man of all his property; to strip the bark from a tree. To deprive is to take away forcibly or coercively what one has, or to withhold what one might have: to deprive workers of their livelihood. To dispossess is to deprive of the holding or use of something: to dispossess the renters of a house. Divest usually means depriving of rights, privileges, powers, or the like: to divest a king of authority.

Etymology

Origin of strip¹

First recorded in 1200–50; Middle English verb strepe(n), streppin, strippe, unattested Old English -strī(e)pan, -strȳpan, -strēpan (compare Old English bestrȳpan “to rob, plunder,” Middle High German strupfen “to strip off”)

Origin of strip²

First recorded in 1425–75; variant of late Middle English stripe, cognate with or borrowed from Middle Low German strippe “strap, thong”; see stripe ¹

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Explanation

The verb strip has many shades of meaning, but most of them involve removing something. Someone may strip you of your power or you may strip off your clothes. Whatever it is that you strip, it’s gone. When you strip something, you leave it bare. Strip can refer to removing a covering — like your clothes or like when you strip your sheets from your bed. Robbers may strip your car of all valuable items. And you might need to strip off a coat of paint before you start painting the front door. When used as a noun, strip could be something in a long, narrow shape — like an airstrip or a strip of material.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

strip stripped stripping stript

"People sometimes strip the beds or do things without me asking, and that's nice for my cleaners, but I don't expect it."

From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2026

"Those small meteorites fall in a narrow strip on the ground."

From Science Daily ● Oct. 29, 2026

Under new rules announced last week, Airbnb will generally prohibit hosts from requiring guests to wash and put away dishes, strip beds or haul garbage off-site for reservations booked on or after November 20.

From Salon ● Oct. 28, 2026

Steel plans to invest nearly $3 billion in a new hot strip mill at its plant near Pittsburgh, the Journal’s Kelly Cloonan writes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2026

A strip of sky separated it from the lake, but it was most definitely a patch of land with trees.

From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer

More than 465,000 beneficiaries, including 200,000 children, were stripped of program access.

From Barron's ● Oct. 28, 2026

GitHub cloud and Security Copilot will be stripped out of Azure and grouped with Microsoft 365 cloud instead.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 27, 2026

Strangely, the spa experience also carries a kind of Soviet nostalgia — one in which everyone is stripped of material status.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 27, 2026

And before being stripped of his knighthood at the end of his life, Casement had been both.

From BBC ● Oct. 22, 2026

The embalmers hadn’t gotten her lips right—the gracious smile she’d worn like an iron mask had been stripped away.

From "Educated" by Tara Westover

The trio honed an aesthetic distinct from neighboring Chicago’s emerging style of house music, stripping out vintage soul for chillier, futuristic productions.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 2, 2026

In Schoenbrun’s debut novel, “Public Access Afterworld,” the filmmaker takes a sizable risk, stripping away the meticulously crafted onscreen worlds to assert the dexterity of their prose.

From Salon ● Oct. 29, 2026

And we knew we would need to tackle a few things: stripping garish wallpaper, repainting, taking the one full bath down to the studs.

From Slate ● Oct. 28, 2026

One stick insect known for occasionally reaching plague-like population levels and stripping leaves from trees was found to represent more than one species.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 1, 2026

My hands went through the routine motions of stripping the broken string away while I fretted to myself.

From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss

Then stript his robe, exclaiming—“Here the breast “Still for your good employ'd.

From The Metamorphoses of Publius Ovidus Naso in English blank verse Vols. I & II by J. J. Howard

The woods were stript of their verdure and the hills were half shrouded in mist. 

From Wild Wales The People, Laguage & Scenery by George Henry Borrow

The Apartments are large, but want Ornament, especially since they have been stript of their Furniture.

From The Memoirs of Charles-Lewis, Baron de Pollnitz, Volume I Being the Observations He Made in His Late Travels from Prussia thro' Germany, Italy, France, Flanders, Holland, England, &C. in Letters to His Friend. Discovering Not Only the Present State of the Chief Cities and Towns; but the Characters of the Principal Persons at the Several Courts. by Karl Ludwig von P?llnitz

They said, surely we will return with thee unto thy people.—And she said—nay—I have nothing to offer you: I go back to my country stript of friends, and substance.

From Gleanings by the Way by John A. Clark

And a long time afterwards the following event took place:—Palladius, having been dismissed from the military service, and stript of all that nourished his pride, retired into private life.

From The Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus During the Reigns of the Emperors Constantius, Julian, Jovianus, Valentinian, and Valens by Charles Duke Yonge

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Related Words

• band
• bar
• belt
• bit
• fillet
• layer
• ribbon
• rod
• section
• segment
• slab
• stripe
• tape

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