strop1
/strɒp
/noun
A device, typically a strip of leather, for sharpening razors.He taught his sons the Bible and beat them with a razor strop....
- First there are the six years, age six to twelve, of being beaten severely once a week with a razor strop by his ex-soldier father.
- My father was typical - he didn't hesitate taking the razor strop to me.
verb (strops, stropping, stropped) [with object]
Sharpen on or with a strop: he stropped a knife razor-sharp on his belt...
- We stropped our straight razors, brandished horsehair wands.
- He'd seen her often in the past weeks: in the morning as he stropped his razor, in the evening as he wrung dingy water from his satin gloves.
- We'll do that by stropping, which work hardens this tiny filament and breaks it off.
Origin
Late Middle English (in the sense 'thong', also as a nautical term): probably a West Germanic adoption of Latin stroppus 'thong'.
Rhymes
strop2
/strɒp/noun [usually in singular] British informal
A bad mood; a temper: Nathalie gets in a strop and makes to leave...
- For a strop that would have embarrassed a two year old, Jon Drummond should hang his head in shame.
- And she failed the group task by throwing a big strop.
- I can't find anybody with this exact problem, but I'm guessing it's to do with SATA drivers and XP having a strop.
Origin
1970s: probably a back-formation from stroppy.
- rack of bones
- rack (or wrack) one's brains (or brain)
- rack-out
- rack pillar
- rack pin
- rack pole
- rack punch
- rack rail
- rack railway
- rack rate
- rack rent
- rack-rental
- rack-renter
- rack rod
- rack saw
- rack side
- rack something up
- rack spring
- rack-stick
- rack system
- rack tail
- rack tone
- rackway
- rack wheel
- rackwork