stripe

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a narrow marking of a different color or texture from the background

   a green toad with small black stripes or bars

2. 2
   noun

   a kind or category

   businessmen of every stripe joined in opposition to the proposal

3. 3
   noun

   V-shaped sleeve badge indicating military rank and service

   they earned their stripes in Kuwait

4. 4
   noun

   A long region of a single colour in a repeating pattern of similar regions.

   zebra stripes

5. 5
   noun

   A long, relatively straight region against a different coloured background.

   8 Sep 2019, Peter Conrad in The Guardian, Sontag: Her Life by Benjamin Moser review – heavyweight study of a critical colossus At first, what mattered was the sparky contents of Sontag’s head; by the end she was best known for the way she wore her hair – that saturnine battle helmet of dyed black, with a single stripe left white at the temple like a Frankensteinian lightning bolt of intellect.

6. 6
   noun

   Distinguishing characteristic; sign; likeness; sort.

   persons of the same political stripe

7. 7
   noun

   A long, narrow mark left by striking someone with a whip or stick; a blow or lash with a whip, stick, or scourge.

   Thou most lying slave, Whom stripes may move, not kindness!

8. 8
   noun

   A slash cut into the flesh as a punishment.

   But if there were any one who tried and could not make her laugh, he would have three red stripes cut out of his back and salt rubbed into them and, sad to relate, there were many sore backs in that kingdom.

Etymology

From Middle English stripe, strype, from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German strîpe, from Proto-West Germanic *strīpā, *strīpō, from Proto-Germanic *strīpô. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Striepe (“stripe, strip”), West Frisian stripe (“stripe”), Dutch streep (“stripe”), German Low German Striepe, Striep, Streep (“stripe”), German Streifen (“stripe, strip, band”), Danish stribe (“stripe”).