to remove or tear off the outer covering of anything, hence to rob or plunder; also a narrow long piece of stuff or material, or a mark or division narrow in proportion to its length distinguished from its ground or surroundings by colour or other variation of texture, character, &c.; a stripe; this last word is a variant of "strip," a particular meaning, that of a stroke or lash of a whip, is either due to the original meaning of "strip," to flay, or to the long narrow mark or wheal left by a blow. The O. Eng. strypan, to strip, is cognate with Du. stroopen, Ger. streifen, and the root is possibly seen in "strike," Lat. stringere. " To strip" has many technical meanings, e.g. to separate the tobacco leaf from the stems, to remove the overlying soil from a mineral deposit before opening and working it, to turn a gun-barrel in a lathe, &c. In architecture, a "strippilaster" is a narrow pilaster such as is found in Saxon work and in the Italian Romanesque churches. "Stripling," a youth, is apparently a diminutive of "strip," in the sense of a. young growing lad.