strop

[ strop ]

/ strɒp /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR strop ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

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

Also strap. Nautical, Machinery.

a rope or a band of metal surrounding and supporting a block, deadeye, etc.
a metal band surrounding the pulley of a block to transmit the load on the pulley to its hook or shackle.
a rope sling, as for handling cargo.
a ring or grommet of rope.

verb (used with object), stropped, strop·ping.

to sharpen on or as if on a strop.

Nearby words

strontium 90, strontium hydroxide, strontium monoxide, strontium unit, strook, strop, strophanthin, strophanthus, strophe, strophic, strophoid

Origin of strop

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

Related forms

strop·per, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for strop

A tackle composed of a rope rove through two single blocks, the standing part being made fast to the strop of one of the blocks.
The Sailor's Word-Book|William Henry Smyth
The strop, or part by which the block is made fast to any particular station, and is usually made either of rope or of iron.
The Sailor's Word-Book|William Henry Smyth
Then I was turned out again, and if I failed again I got still more ‘strop,’ and went to bed without any supper.
Aletta|Bertram Mitford
The Apaches had inflicted unmentionable torments upon him and his, and the strop was his dearest possession.
Bunch Grass|Horace Annesley Vachell

You'll mebbe kin hire a horse to ride, an' strop yer baggage on.
The Man of the Desert|Grace Livingston Hill

British Dictionary definitions for strop

strop

/ (strɒp) /

noun

a leather strap or an abrasive strip for sharpening razors

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

mainly British informal a temper tantrumhe threw a strop and stormed off

verb strops, stropping or stropped

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

Word Origin for strop

C14 (in nautical use: a strip of rope): via Middle Low German or Middle Dutch strop, ultimately from Latin stroppus, from Greek strophos cord; see strophe

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