strop

plural strops

1. A strap; more specifically a piece of leather or a substitute (notably canvas), or strip of wood covered with a suitable material, for honing a razor.

   Cheap razors are a mistake, as they soon lose their edge. A good razor requires no strop. It has been suggested as an excellent plan to have a case of seven razors—one for each day in the week—so that they are all equally used.

   1876, Eliza Bisbee Duffey, Our Behaviour: A Manual of Etiquette and Dress of the Best American Society, Philadelphia

   Synonyms: razor strop

2. nauticalA piece of rope spliced into a circular wreath, and put round a block for hanging it.

present singular third person strops · participle present stropping · participle past stropped · past stropped

1. To hone (a razor or knife) with a strop.

   One should strop the razor before each shave.

   1 more example

   The barber—a round, bustling fellow—stropped his razor and prattled gossip.

   1891, Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, chapter 1, in The Blue Pavilions

2. obsoleteTo strap.

plural strops

1. CommonwealthIrelandUKA bad mood or temper. A tantrum.

   Synonyms: huff

present singular third person strops · participle present stropping · participle past stropped · past stropped

1. computingTo mark a sequence of letters syntactically as having a special property, such as being a keyword, e.g. by enclosing in apostrophes as in 'foo' or writing in uppercase as in FOO.

plural strops

1. slangA poor-quality or unsaleable diamond.

   […] he almost fell out of the phone booth laughing and said to her, 'Boy, did my son buy a strop! Did he get stuck!'

   2005, Renée Rose Shield, Diamond Stories: Enduring Change on 47th Street, page 156