Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - strip

(strips, stripping, stripped) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. A strip of something such as paper, cloth, or food is a long, narrow piece of it. ...a new kind of manufactured wood made by pressing strips of wood together and baking them... Serve dish with strips of fresh raw vegetables. N-COUNT: usu N of n 2. A strip of land or water is a long narrow area of it. The coastal cities of Liguria sit on narrow strips of land lying under steep mountains. ...a short boat ride across a narrow strip of water. = stretch N-COUNT: usu N of n 3. A strip is a long street in a city or town, where there are a lot of stores, restaurants, and hotels. (AM) ...Goff’s Charcoal Hamburgers on Lover’s Lane, a busy commercial strip in North Dallas. N-COUNT 4. If you strip, you take off your clothes. They stripped completely, and lay in the damp grass... Women residents stripped naked in protest. VERB: V, V adj • Strip off means the same as strip. The children were brazenly stripping off and leaping into the sea. PHRASAL VERB: V P 5. If someone is stripped, their clothes are taken off by another person, for example in order to search for hidden or illegal things. One prisoner claimed he’d been dragged to a cell, stripped and beaten. VERB: usu passive, be V-ed see also strip-search 6. To strip something means to remove everything that covers it. After Mike left for work I stripped the beds and vacuumed the carpets... The floorboards in both this room and the dining room have been stripped, sanded and sealed. VERB: V n, V n 7. If you strip an engine or a piece of equipment, you take it to pieces so that it can be cleaned or repaired. Volvo’s three-man team stripped the car and restored it. VERB: V n • Strip down means the same as strip. In five years I had to strip the water pump down four times... I stripped down the two SU carburettors, cleaned and polished the pieces and rebuilt the units. PHRASAL VERB: V n P, V P n (not pron) 8. To strip someone of their property, rights, or titles means to take those things away from them. A senior official was stripped of all his privileges for publicly criticising his employer. VERB: be V-ed of n, also V n of n 9. In a newspaper or magazine, a strip is a series of drawings which tell a story. The words spoken by the characters are often written on the drawings. (AM) ...the Doonesbury strip. N-COUNT 10. see also landing strip