strip v.
1. (UK Und.) to rob a house, esp. when the thieves empty it of all moveable contents.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Strip, c. to Rob or Gut a House, to unrig any Body, or to Bite them of their Money. Strip the ken, c. to Gut the House. Strip the Table, c. to Winn all the Money on the Place. | |
| , , , | | Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. n.p.: strip to rob or gut a House. |
| Fowlers End (2001) 4: Turn your back for five minutes and they strip the place to the bone. |
2. to rob a person.
 | see sense 1. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Account of Robberies 7: A third [...] who was going to Ireland, was stripped by us on the Chester-Road. | |
| Proceedings at Sessions (City of London) Oct. 9/2: It was not I that strip’d the Gentleman, it was Michael Nichols. | |
| Peregrine Pickle (1964) 365: He had been stripp’d by a company of sharpers. | |
| Memoirs (1995) III 245: It was generally believed that I was one of the persons who had been stripped. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Dundee Courier 19 July 3/2: Two ragged ruffians pounced upon him with a demand for his watch and purse [...] said Scholtz ‘Put up your knives, you won’t need them. Strip me by all means but for heaven’s sake be quick about it, for it is as cold as a wolf’s throat’. | |
| Bucks. Herald 1 July 7/1: ‘They say [...] if they get hold of me [...] they’ll strip me; and if they do they will have all my money’. | |
| Sporting Times 1 Jan. 1/5: Two Labour lags who lounged hard by laughed so immoderately that they almost let the pigeon go unstripped. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | ‘Canada Kid’ Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 153: I strip him for a leather poke an’ duck in an alley an’ look inside. | |
| Prison Community (1940) 336/1: strip, vt. To take money from a wallet; to rob. |
3. (US und.) to steal valuable parts from an automobile.
| Illinois Crime Survey 1056: [He] had been shot in the back by a policeman who caught him trying to strip a car. | |
| WITSEC 252: [H]e started stealing cars and stripping them for parts. |
4. (US campus) to upset or harm a person.
| Campus Sl. Mar. 8: strip – mistreat someone, do someone a disservice. ‘Kris really stripped me when she spilt wine all over my white dress.’. |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
one who steals washing from its drying lines.
| , , | | Sl. Dict. |
(US) an automobile that has been modified to improve its performance.
| Garden of Sand (1981) 13: There was hue and cry for banning ‘collegiate cars,’ as the stripdowns being put together in gasoline alleys all over town were called. |
(US) a bar or club that offers striptease shows.
| Sun (Baltimore) 27 June 30/3: Prince Georges County Sheriff Carlton Beall began a crackdown on what he called ‘strip joints’. | |
| Real Bohemia 158: A transient prosperity was created in the 1940’s by the war, which brought B-girls, prostitutes, and strip joints. | |
| Last Seen Wearing in Second Morse Omnibus (1994) 404: Ever been to a strip club, Lewis? | |
| Spend, Spend, Spend Scene 92: I got kicked out [...] For offending the Pope – which I didn’t; threatening to open a strip joint – which I didn’t. | |
| Wiseguy (2001) 70: I knew there were a bunch of strip joints along Baltimore Street. | |
| Guardian Travel 3 July 11: The increasing amount of pizza and lager bars and strip joints that are opening up. |
(orig. US) a striptease show.
| ‘Neat Strip’ Runyon on Broadway (1954) 620: That is a right neat strip you do out there just now. | |
| Dead Ringer 21: Your cooch shows would be strips. | |
| (con. early 1950s) L.A. Confidential 466: He grew into his teens [...] hiding out in skid row strip shows. |
In phrases
(Irish) to dress in second-hand clothes.
| Freeman’s Jrnl (Dublin) 2 Dec. 2/2: Whether the Premier be again disposed to array himself in the cast garments of Whiggery, or strip a peg himself in the warerooms of Bright, Cobden, and Co. | |
| Belfast News-Letter 12 Apr. 3/5: Necessities may and do arise amongst the poorer classes here as elsewhere for cast-offs. But why any sane being ashould ‘strip a peg’ of such things [...] passes comprehension. | |
| Slanguage. |
see separate entries.
(Aus.) to become fiercely argumentative.
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Bulletin (Sydney) 23 Nov. 15/1: They chummed with cabmen, hodmen and the like; but stripped teeth and bit when anyone opposed the tenets of Anglicanism. |
In exclamations
a general excl. of imprecation.
| The Minor 38: Strip me, if I would bet five shillings against the whole gang. |