strop
Americannoun
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any of several devices for sharpening razors, especially a strip of leather or other flexible material.
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Nautical, Machinery. Also
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a rope or a band of metal surrounding and supporting a block, deadeye, etc.
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a metal band surrounding the pulley of a block to transmit the load on the pulley to its hook or shackle.
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a rope sling, as for handling cargo.
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a ring or grommet of rope.
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verb (used with object)
noun
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a leather strap or an abrasive strip for sharpening razors
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a rope or metal band around a block or deadeye for support
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informal a temper tantrum
he threw a strop and stormed off
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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stropsimple
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stropssimple
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have stroppedperfect
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has stroppedperfect
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am stroppingprogressive
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are stroppingprogressive
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is stroppingprogressive
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have been stroppingperfect progressive
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has been stroppingperfect progressive
Past
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stroppedsimple
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had stroppedperfect
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was stroppingprogressive
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were stroppingprogressive
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had been stroppingperfect progressive
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
The mirror still hung there from his time, and beside it a long leather strop for sharpening the edge on his cutthroat razor.
From "A Long Way from Chicago" by Richard Peck
But the spat punctures any suggestion that the Budget will end grumps and strops inside the party.
From BBC ● Nov. 29, 2025
The divisions and strops of the past had undermined Les Bleus and another outbreak of in-fighting was to be avoided at all costs.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 9, 2014
Perhaps calmness – not auteur strops – is the key to winning against the corporations.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 28, 2013
Other people ignore the legend or interpret it as gentle self-ingratiation by the Gillette Co., meaning, "Whoso uses a Gillette razor, he strops not, neither does he hone."
From Time Magazine Archive
A small sac-de-nuit was prepared; brushes, combs, razors, strops, a change of linen, &c. &c., were carefully put up; but our heavy baggage, our coats, waistcoats, and other wearing apparel were unnecessary.
From Relics of General Chasse by Trollope, Anthony
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
We witnessed Rashford doing it against Villa to Hojlund, stropping and having a go.
From BBC ● Dec. 30, 2023
I don't know what the style is, there seems no plan, no effort, players stropping at one another.
From BBC ● Dec. 30, 2023
There’s little thunder, no off-piste mental excursions, no sense of a writer stropping his razor.
From New York Times ● Jul. 9, 2018
BST13:48 88 min: McClean and Naismith booked for mutual stropping.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 13, 2015
The holes in it marked the progress of his emaciation and the leather at one side had a lacquered look to it where he was used to stropping the blade of his knife.
From "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
