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.

---

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.

---

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

---

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

---

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

---

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

“All the cavity nesters; all the nesters that rob the cavity nesters. Everyone is living in there. All of that is lost in one fell swoop. It’s a sort of strip mining.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 21, 2026

The Flamingo Las Vegas, located along the famous Las Vegas strip, features a wildlife habitat inside its hotel and casino that is free to walk through.

From BBC ● Oct. 20, 2026

The strip format is a logical evolution, she added.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 19, 2026

Climate change complicates the picture because the oceans are now warmer, but scientists can strip out that background effect to determine the absolute rise.

From Barron's ● Oct. 13, 2026

The strip of leather that bound my arm became as hefty and cumbersome as a chain.

From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros

Balesni said he also shared the proposal, stripped of company secrets, with Greenblatt after receiving authorization from OpenAI to speak with him about it.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2026

Southern California is facing coastal erosion driven by a “super” El Niño winter season, resulting in collapsed sea bluffs, beaches that have been stripped away, and damaged homes and infrastructure along the coast.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 20, 2026

The force of the water stripped the fjord’s walls down to bare rock.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 19, 2026

In July, Donaldson was stripped of his knighthood by the King.

From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2026

I felt cursed like the biblical king Nebuchadnezzar, stripped of power and pride, and driven into the wilderness to live like an animal.

From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros

He has since taken to stripping to the waist for social-media videos of himself at the gym pounding a treadmill and doing squats.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026

Crenshaw dominated early, Caden Baker stripping the ball from Odebunmi near midfield on Cleveland’s first possession and scoring on the 50-yard fumble return.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 26, 2026

These streams develop when the gravity of the surrounding host galaxy gradually pulls stars away from the globular cluster through a process called tidal stripping.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 23, 2026

In an interview with MarketWatch, Palfrey pointed out that S&P 500 earnings per share jumped 55% in the second quarter, or a still-impressive 35% when stripping out unrealized gains.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 10, 2026

“I can’t believe they’re already stripping the tables.”

From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri

The shadows were stript slowly from the great mesas and the weird buttes and strange desert sculptures stood out in absolute distinctness.

From The Frontier Boys in the Grand Canyon A Search for Treasure by Wyn Roosevelt

We say now, if any one had stolen his corpse, he would not have stript him, for theft loves no delay.

From The Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church Containing the Sermones Catholici, or Homilies of ?lfric, in the Original Anglo-Saxon, with an English Version. Volume I. by Abbot of Eynsham Aelfric

The sad time is come; she is stript of her Wood,

From Village Life in America 1852-1872 Including the period of the American Civil War as told in the diary of a school-girl by Caroline Cowles Richards

Then he stript the cloth from his canteen, fastened the strand with bits of wire and made a fine coffee-pot of it.

From Si Klegg, Book 1 (of 6) His Transformation From A Raw Recruit To A Veteran by John McElroy

Feathertop, likewise, had looked towards the mirror, and there beheld, not the glittering mockery of his outside show, but a picture of the sordid patchwork of his real composition, stript of all witchcraft.

From The International Monthly, Volume 5, No. 3, March, 1852 by Various

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---

Related Words

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

---