Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) any main street or central area of a city devoted to entertainment, esp. Las Vegas; one may assume that local press refers to their local version.

1919		Bisbee Dly Rev. (AZ) 30 Jan. 4/1: Armed with cigars for the men and candy for the children, he visited ‘the strip’.
1926		Nebraska State Jrnl (Lincoln, NE) 10 Dec. 4/3: In ‘The Strip’ there were four election districts.
1929		Pittsburgh Post Gaz. (PA) 2 Apr. 10/6: ‘The Strip’ isa losing its Bowery swagger [...] old-times have moved away.
1944		N. Davis Sally’s in the Alley 107: Look at the offices they sport on the Strip.
1953		R. Chandler Long Good-Bye 65: Your name’s Menendez. The boys call you Mendy. You operate on the Strip? [i.e. Sunset Strip].
1958		H. Ellison Web of the City (1983) 111: The cesspool of Forty-second Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues [...] drew him like a quicksand bog [...] The Strip was crowded.
1969		D. Pendleton Executioner (1973) 108: I’ll bet you an evening on the Strip that I’m the man who brings him in.
1974		Phila. Dly News (PA) 26 Nov. 16/3: It’s been ‘The Strip’s ’ hard-throbbing nightlife and [...] bars that have won it the title as ‘the notorous Strip’.
1976		N. Thornburg Cutter and Bone (2001) 182: Because this was the strip though, he barely drew a glance.
1987		Ice-T ‘Six in the Morning’ 🎵 Went to the strip started pimpin’ the hoes.
1993		I.L. Allen City in Sl. (1995) 41: Slang came to use [midway] for any brightly lighted thoroughfare, especially an entertainment strip, such as Sunset Strip in Hollywood and The Strip in Las Vegas.
1998		L. Stringer Grand Central Winter (1999) 184: It is now unofficially known as the strip. And every night it plays host to a festive, monied, often boisterous crowd, hell-bent on pursuing a little afterdark diversion.
2007		Montgomery Advertiser (AL) 15 Apr. 36/2: The Strip is a mishmash of bars, restaurants and stroes [...] there’s not a livelier — or more beer-soaked — place in the state on a football Saturday.
2010		A. Steinberg Running the Books 266: He was slick and successful - showing C.C. around the strip, showboating at the swanky Sugar Shack club.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1942		Davis & Wolsey Call House Madam (1943) 441: Kornfeldt was [...] now running a café in the Strip district.
2001		(con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 76: The four building & building-supply locals who service the ‘Strip’ hotels are Cleveland Crime cartel fronts.