Strap
Pronunciation
- IPA: /stræp/
- Rhymes: -æp
Origin
From a variant of earlier strope ("loop on a harness"), from Middle English strope, stropp, from Old English strop, stropp ("a band, thong, strap; oar-thong"), from Latin stroppus, struppus ("strap"), from Ancient Greek στÏόφος (strophos, "rope"), from στÏÎφω (strephÅ, "to twist"). Cognate with Scots strap, strop ("strap, band, thong"), Dutch strop ("noose, strop, loop"), Low German Strop ("strap"), German Struppe, Strüppe, Strippe ("string, cord"), Danish strop ("strap"), Swedish stropp ("strap, loop").
Full definition of strap
Noun
strap
(plural straps)- A long, narrow, pliable strip of leather, cloth, or the like.
- 1907, w, The Dust of Conflict Chapter 7, The patter of feet, and clatter of strap and swivel, seemed to swell into a bewildering din, but they were almost upon the fielato offices, where the carretera entered the town, before a rifle flashed.
- A strip of thick leather used in flogging.
- unknown date Addison:A lively cobbler that ... had scarce passed a day without giving her wife the discipline of the strap.
- Something made of such a strip, or of a part of one, or a combination of two or more for a particular use.
- A piece of leather, or strip of wood covered with a suitable material, used to hone the sharpened edge of a razor; a strop.
- A narrow strip of anything, as of iron or brass.
- (carpentry, machinery) A band, plate, or loop of metal for clasping and holding timbers or parts of a machine.
- (nautical) A piece of rope or metal passing around a block and used for fastening it to anything.
- (botany) The flat part of the corolla in ligulate florets, as those of the white circle in the daisy.
- (botany) The leaf, exclusive of its sheath, in some grasses.
- A shoulder strap, see under shoulder.
- (slang) A gun, normally a personal firearm such as a pistol or machine pistol.