[f. STRAP sb. (Cf. STROP v.)]
1. trans. To furnish with a strap; to fasten, bind or secure with a strap or with straps. Also with on, up, together.
1711. W. Sutherland, Shipbuild. Assist., 141. A general Proportion for strapping every Block in a Ship.
1735. Dyche & Pardon, Dict., Strap, to fasten down with a Strap.
1776. G. Semple, Building in Water, 35. Let your Mauls be well hooped and strapped with Iron.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., ii. His scanty black trousers … were strapped very tightly over a pair of patched and mended shoes.
1843. LeFevre, Life Trav. Phys., III. III. iv. 120. A tin case strapped over his shoulders.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. ii. 15. I strapped on my knapsack.
1861. Sala, Dutch Pict., xviii. 282. The barouche … had a hamper strapped behind it.
1873. Black, Pr. Thule, xxiv. [She] asked … if all her portmanteaus were strapped up.
1874. Thearle, Naval Archit., § 280, 292. They are also carefully strapped with two rivets on each side of the butt.
1885. Miss Braddon, Wyllard’s Weird, i. He began to collect all this literature and to strap it neatly together.
1909. Daily News, 20 Oct., 7/1. ‘It is blowing a bit hard,’ was the intrepid aviator’s remark as he strapped himself to his seat on the machine.
b. Surg. To apply straps of adhesive plaster to (a wound, etc.); to fasten (dressing) on with plaster; to strap up, to dress and bandage (a wound or a person, i.e., his wound).
1843. R. J. Graves, Lect. Clin. Med., xxx. 385. But [he] expected some improvement from strapping the ulcer with real adhesive plaster.
1872. O. W. Holmes, Poet Breakf.-t., v. (1885), 110. He … strapped up my cut.
1902. Munsey’s Mag., XXVI. 583/2. I awoke and found Low … ready to take off my bandages and dress my wound…. And after he had strapped me up again the baroness came in with my breakfast.
1905. H. D. Rolleston, Dis. Liver, 118. The local pain and tenderness [should be] relieved … by strapping the hepatic region with narrow strips of plaster as if for fractured ribs.
c. To bind and hang (a person). Also with up. Also intr., to be hanged. Sc.
1815. Scott, Guy M., xxxiii. I am done up already, and if I must strap for it, all shall out. Ibid. (1815), Lett., in Lockhart, III. xi. 381. A full account of the affair of 1745, with the trials … of the poor plaids who were strapped up at Carlisle.
d. To fasten, bind or secure (a strap) tightly.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, xxxiv. When they strapped the horse-girth ower my arms, I might hae judged what was biding me.
2. To beat with a strap or leather thong.
1735. Dyche & Pardon, Dict.
1832. Min. Evid. Comm. Factories Bill, 193. When I got home I saw her shoulders, and I said, ‘Ann, what is the matter?’ she said, ‘The overlooker has strapped me.’
1854. Thackeray, Newcomes, I. ii. 20. Many and many a time had his own father … strapped and beaten him.
1887. Pall Mall Gaz., 21 Dec., 7/1. The two little girls were strapped again. With faces marked by the strap they fled.
3. To sharpen (a razor, knife) by applying it to a strap or strop: = STROP v. Now rare or Obs.
1785. J. Collier, Musical Trav., 119. Still strapped he his inexorable razor.
1823. Blackw. Mag., XIV. 592/1. He had not ‘strapped’ the razor enough—or he had strapped it too much.
1845. S. Judd, Margaret, I. xvii. (1881), 149. Strapping his knife on the edge of the kit.
1850. Thackeray, Pendennis, lxviii. Mr. James Morgan laid out the silver dressing-case, and strapped the shining razor.
1856. [see HONE v.3].
4. intr. To work closely and energetically (at a task); to buckle to one’s work. Also with adv., as to, away. slang.
1823. Egan, Grose’s Dict. Vulgar T., Strap, to work. The kiddy would not strap, so he went on the scamp.
1836. Col. Hawker, Diary (1893), II. 103. Writing, reading, and strapping hard at my long-lost music.
1849. Alb. Smith, Pottleton Leg., xxxi. 347. Pedestrians … strapping away at the rate of four miles and a half per hour.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, II. 233/1. The strapping masters, or those who make the men (by extra supervision) ‘strap’ to their work, so as to do a greater quantity of labour in the usual time.
1891. Cornhill Mag., July, 65. Maisie strapped to, and got a berth as a nursery governess.
5. trans. To groom (a horse).
1854. Miss Baker, Northampt. Gloss., Strap, to groom a horse.
1875. My First ‘Wine,’ 20. When the groom took off his [a horse’s] clothes to strap him,… my hopes of winning … vanished altogether.
1881. A. C. Grant, Bush-Life Queensland, xxv. (1882), 254. Tommy … leads the Bey [a racehorse] off to be thoroughly strapped and clothed [after the race].
6. To give credit for (goods). dial. or slang.
1862. C. C. Robinson, Dial. Leeds, 423. ‘Yuh mun strap muh this missis wal Seterder neet.’… ‘D’ yuh strap here mãaster?’
1896. Evesham Jrnl., 26 Sept. (E.D.D.). Witness said she had not got a sixpence, and prisoner offered to ‘strap’ it with her.
