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strip

1. To deprive; to bereave; to make destitute; to plunder; especially, to deprive of a covering; to skin; to peel; as, to strip a man of his possession, his rights, his privileges, his reputation; to strip one of his clothes; to strip a beast of his skin; to strip a tree of its bark. And strippen her out of her rude array. (Chaucer) They stripped joseph out of his coat. (gen. Xxxvii. 23) Opinions which . . . No clergyman could have avowed without imminent risk of being stripped of his gown. (Macaulay)

2. To divest of clothing; to uncover. Before the folk herself strippeth she. (Chaucer) Strip your sword stark naked. (Shak)

3. To dismantle; as, to strip a ship of rigging, spars, etc.

4. (Science: agriculture) To pare off the surface of, as land, in strips.

5. To deprive of all milk; to milk dry; to draw the last milk from; hence, to milk with a peculiar movement of the hand on the teats at the last of a milking; as, to strip a cow.

6. To pass; to get clear of; to outstrip. When first they stripped the Malean promontory. (Chapman) Before he reached it he was out of breath, And then the other stripped him. (Beau. & Fl)

7. To pull or tear off, as a covering; to remove; to wrest away; as, to strip the skin from a beast; to strip the bark from a tree; to strip the clothes from a man's back; to strip away all disguisses. To strip bad habits from a corrupted heart, is stripping off the skin. (Gilpin)

8. (Science: machinery) To tear off (the thread) from a bolt or nut; as, the thread is stripped. To tear off the thread from (a bolt or nut); as, the bolt is stripped.

9. To remove the metal coating from (a plated article), as by acids or electrolytic action.

10. To remove fibre, flock, or lint from; said of the teeth of a card when it becomes partly clogged.

11. To pick the cured leaves from the stalks of (tobacco) and tie them into hands; to remove the midrib from (tobacco leaves).

Origin: OE. Stripen, strepen, AS. Strpan in bestrpan to plunder; akin to D. Stroopen, MHG. Stroufen, G. Streifen.

1. A narrow piece, or one comparatively long; as, a strip of cloth; a strip of land.

2. (Science: chemical) A trough for washing ore.

3. The issuing of a projectile from a rifled gun without acquiring the spiral motion.