Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1974 (SND Vol. IX).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
STROP, n.1, v.1 Also stropp. Sc. usages: I. n. 1. A string or series of objects threaded or linked in some way together, as of beads, onions, nuts, a bunch or cluster of berries, esp. currants (Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.). Cf. Strap, n., 3.Rxb. 1908 Trans. Hawick Arch. Soc. (1908) 76:
Another great game in those days was pitching and tossing with brass buttons of different patterns. Some boys were rich in buttons, having perhaps thirty or forty on his “strop.”
2. In pl.: trouser braces, Gallowses (Sh. 1971). Cf. Strap. n., 2.Sh. 1898 Shetland News (4 June):
Dis laskit strops is a curse, whin a body is carryin' a burdeen.Sh. 1949 P. Jamieson Letters 38:
They spoke of superstitions, and of a man on board who had a twist in his “stropps,” and he would not put this right the whole time he was on the voyage, in case it brought on “bad luck.”
3. A band of metal; a strip of wood, a wooden fillet (Sh. 1971). Obs. in Eng.e.Lth. 1807 Foord Acct. Bk. MS. 23:
To Clouts, hurkers for axil and a strop for do.
II. v. 1. To string (beads, etc.) together (Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.; Dmf. 1930).
2. To clamp or clinch with strips of wood (Sh. 1971).
[Strop is the orig. hist. form from O.E. stropp, a thong, which survived in Eng., and in Sc. alongside the later Strap (see P.L.D. § 54). Strap was then adopted into Eng. in the 17th c.]You may wish to vary the format shown below depending on the citation style used.
"Strop n.1, v.1". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 13 May 2024 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/strop_n1_v1>
