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Synonyms

strop

American  
[strop] / strɒp /

noun

  1. any of several devices for sharpening razors, especially a strip of leather or other flexible material.

  2. Nautical, Machinery. Also

    1. a rope or a band of metal surrounding and supporting a block, deadeye, etc.

    2. a metal band surrounding the pulley of a block to transmit the load on the pulley to its hook or shackle.

    3. a rope sling, as for handling cargo.

    4. a ring or grommet of rope.


verb (used with object)

  • strops,
    present (3rd person singular)
  • stropped,
    past participle,  past
  • stropping
    present participle
  1. to sharpen on or as if on a strop.

strop British  
/ strɒp /

noun

  1. a leather strap or an abrasive strip for sharpening razors

  2. a rope or metal band around a block or deadeye for support

  3. informal a temper tantrum

    he threw a strop and stormed off

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

verb

  1. (tr) to sharpen (a razor, etc) on a strop

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

Future

Etymology

Origin of strop

before 1050; Middle English (noun), Old English; cognate with Dutch, Low German strop; all probably < Latin stroppus, variant of struppus strap

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

The tour, for which the Jacksonville show was the sixth strop, runs through October and is in support of the March release of Wallen’s sophomore album, “One Thing at a Time.”

From Los Angeles Times May 5, 2023

He left the field in a strop often enough after games, so what might he be saying in private given the overall malaise at Old Trafford?

From BBC Jul. 8, 2022

There’s one more elevated observation deck on the floating trail worth a strop before reaching Foster Island, from which you can connect to the Washington Park Arboretum via the southward path.

From Seattle Times Mar. 9, 2022

Mine may be better used as a razor strop.

From Washington Post Feb. 14, 2022

That razor strop burns so bad, after you go to bed your legs still feel stripedy like a zebra horse.

From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver

But the spat punctures any suggestion that the Budget will end grumps and strops inside the party.

From BBC Nov. 29, 2025

Least excited about: The usual soap opera, personality, inflammatory quotes, so-called mind so-called games, feuds, strops, handshakes and so on that somehow appear in the eyeline just as there’s some actual football happening.

From The Guardian Aug. 16, 2014

Perhaps calmness – not auteur strops – is the key to winning against the corporations.

From The Guardian Feb. 28, 2013

By letting the flower stalk grow, drying and slicing the firm pith, they get natural razor strops, insulating material.

From Time Magazine Archive

From the Botanical Magazine, by permission of Lovell Reeve and Co. natural razor strops, and the expressed juice of the leaves will lather in water like soap.

From The Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia Volume 1 of 28 by Project Gutenberg

Authorities say the driver stropped and cooperated with police.

From Washington Times Nov. 6, 2019

When I stropped out of school at 16 and the teachers asked what was to become of me, I told them I would probably be an astronaut.

From The Guardian Jul. 16, 2019

The Missouri State Highway Patrol says that the crash happened Tuesday when a pickup truck driver changed lanes and ran into the back of a car that was stropped in traffic.

From Washington Times Dec. 19, 2018

No slamming pantry doors, bleep-ridden sty storm-outs or wobble-shots of Alex as he stropped off to the lower field after an altercation with a shirehorse.

From The Guardian Jan. 20, 2011

Later, as he stropped the razor against leather the harsh whisper made me cringe.

From "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes

I don't know what the style is, there seems no plan, no effort, players stropping at one another.

From BBC Dec. 30, 2023

We witnessed Rashford doing it against Villa to Hojlund, stropping and having a go.

From BBC Dec. 30, 2023

Tanya pleads, in whichever bar, office, restaurant or sunbed saloon she's stalked him to, chucking him her trademark satanic glare, turning on a six-inch Roberto Cavalli heel and stropping off.

From The Guardian Oct. 22, 2010

Located eventually at 8 Reade Street, they proved very successful, eventually acquiring more than 50 patents on razors and stropping devices.

From New York Times Sep. 24, 2010

His nostrils were dark and fiery as he labored around me, pumping up the chair and stropping his razor.

From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides

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