Strop

/stɹɒp/ · noun

Meaning

A strap; more specifically a piece of leather or a substitute (notably canvas), or strip of wood covered with a suitable material, for honing a razor..

Definitions by Sense

1. A strap; more specifically a piece of leather or a substitute (notably canvas), or strip of wood covered with a suitable material, for honing a razor.
2. (nautical) A piece of rope spliced into a circular wreath, and put round a block for hanging it.
3. To hone (a razor or knife) with a strop.
4. (obsolete) To strap.
5. (UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A bad mood or temper. A tantrum.
6. (computing) To mark a sequence of letters syntactically as having a special property, such as being a keyword, e.g. by enclosing in apostrophes as in 'foo' or writing in uppercase as in FOO.
7. (slang) A poor-quality or unsaleable diamond.

Example Sentences

Cheap razors are a mistake, as they soon lose their edge. A good razor requires no strop. It has been suggested as an excellent plan to have a case of seven razors—one for each day in the week—so that they are all equally used.

One should strop the razor before each shave.

The barber—a round, bustling fellow—stropped his razor and prattled gossip.

[…] he almost fell out of the phone booth laughing and said to her, 'Boy, did my son buy a strop! Did he get stuck!'

Synonyms for strop

Antonyms for strop

Related Words

Word Forms

• strops
• stropping
• stropped

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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