[Not found till the 17th c., but prob. much older. If not a back-formation from STRIPED a., prob. a. MLG. or MDu. strîpe (early mod.Du. † strijpe), corresp. to OHG. *strîfo (implied in the derivative strîphaht STRIPED a.), MHG. strîfe (mod.G. streifen) masc., Sw. stripa, Da. stribe, also ON., MSw. stríp a striped fabric (cf. Icel. stríprendr striped). Parallel synonymous forms, differing in ablaut-grade, are WFlem. striepe, MDu. strêpe (mod.Du. streep fem.); outside Teut. the OIrish sríab, stripe (:—*sreibā), srebnaid striped, are believed to be cognate. The Teut. root *strĭp- (: *straip-):—pre-Teut. *streib- seems to have been nearly synonymous with *strĭk-:—pre-Teut. *streig- (see STRIKE v.), to which it may be ultimately related; the sense of the root is shown in the wk. verb OHG. *straifjôn (MHG. streifen, streipfen, mod.G. streifen) to graze, pass over lightly, wander (the mod.G. streifen also represents MHG. ströufen: see STRIP v.1). For other cognates see STRIP sb.2, STRIPE sb.1, sb.2, and v.1
There would seem to be some obscure relation between the Teut. roots strĭp- and *streup- (see STRIP v.1) similar to that existing between *strĭk- and *strenk-: see STRIKE v.]
1. In textile fabrics, hence gen. (e.g., in the coat of an animal, a flower, a decorative pattern), a portion of the surface long in proportion to its breadth, of uniform width, and differing in color or texture from the adjacent parts.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 510. Carnation of seuerall Stripes.
1687. Miége, Gt. Fr. Dict., II. The stripes of a striped Stuff, les Raies (ou Barres) d’une Etoffe rayée.… To make white, or yellow stripes, rayer de blanc, ou de jaune.
1697. Dampier, Voy., I. xix. 533. There is a very beautiful sort of wild Ass in this Country, whose body is curiously striped with equal lists of white and black: the stripes coming from the ridge of his Back.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Stripe,… a streak in Silk Cloth, or Stuff.
1746. Hervey, Medit. (1748), I. 170. Some [flowers] are intersected with elegant Stripes, or studded with radiant Spots.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), IV. 27. The little ground squirrel of Carolina, of a reddish colour, and blackish stripes on each side.
1782. E. Watson, Men & Times Revol. (1861), 202. The background, which Copley and I designed to represent a ship, bearing to America the intelligence of the acknowledgment of Independence, with a sun just rising upon the stripes of the union, streaming from her gaff.
1802. C. James, Milit. Dict., s.v., Regimental sword knots are directed to be made of crimson and gold in stripes.
1833. T. Hook, Parson’s Dau., III. xii. The Sir Timothy Wadd … with … the Honourable John Company’s stripes flying, had once the honour of being taken for an American seventy-four.
1859. Darwin, Orig. Spec., v. 164. In the north-west part of India … a horse without stripes is not considered as purely-bred.
1860. Ld. W. Lennox, Pict. Sporting Life, I. 209. Waistcoat, blue and yellow stripe, each stripe an inch in depth.
1868. W. B. Marriott, Vestiar. Christ., Introd. v. p. xxxvii. Various grades of rank were distinguished at Rome, from very early times, by the colour and by the relative width of the ornamental stripes worn upon the tunic by senators, and by knights.
1897. Proc. Zool. Soc., 545. A similar coloured short longitudinal stripe is also placed at the middle of each elytron.
1912. H. J. Butler, Motor Bodies, 108. The body panels are often striped. This may be either as a broad stripe, say an inch wide, or a series of, say, three fine lines occupying together one inch of panel, [etc.].
b. (Old) Stripes, a jocular name for a tiger.
1885. W. T. Hornaday, 2 Yrs. in Jungle, xiv. 157. There was Old Stripes in all his glory.
1909. Ladies’ Field, 28 Aug., 511/2. How I shot my first ‘stripes.’
c. In the names of certain moths.
1775. M. Harris, Engl. Lepidoptera, 45. Phalæna…. 315 Stripe, white. 316 Stripe, shoulder. 317 Stripe, yellow shoulder. 318 Stripe, cream dot.
1832. J. Rennie, Consp. Butterfl. & Moths, 127. The Oblique Stripe. Ibid., 164. The Dark Silver Stripe. Ibid., 201. The Treble Gold Stripe.
2. A narrow strip of cloth, braid, or gold lace, sewn on a garment of different color. Popularly applied to the chevron worn on the upper part of the coat-sleeve by a non-commissioned officer to indicate his rank. Also applied to the similarly shaped badge worn on the sleeve by soldiers in recognition of good conduct; and (in very recent use) to the vertical badge on the left sleeve of a soldier who has been wounded.
In the British army the lance-corporal wears one ‘stripe,’ the corporal two, and the sergeant three.
An earlier name was ‘slash’ (C. James, Milit. Dict., 1802).
1827. [Maginn], Milit. Sketch-bk., I. 297. Ye speak your sentiments like a good sodger, and I hope afore long that ye’ll have the stripes.
1848. J. Grant, Adv. Aide-de-C., xxxiv. Rings worn on the arms of the privates, called ‘good-conduct stripes.’
1861. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, III. 165/1. Although I used to wear the colonel’s livery, yet I had the full corporal’s stripes on my coat.
1876. Voyle & Stevenson, Milit. Dict., 25/1. The good-conduct stripes worn on the arm by men of good behaviour are also called badges.
1892. Kipling, Barrack-room Ballads, Danny Deever, 7. They’ve taken of his buttons off an’ cut his stripes away.
1916. Blackw. Mag., Jan., 124/1. Private Tosh was ‘offered a stripe,’ too, but declined.
3. In glass, a streak differing in refractive power from the general mass.
1823. J. Badcock, Dom. Amusem., 174. In making these pastes many precautions are necessary,… lest bubbles and stripes do supervene.
4. A striped textile fabric.
1751. Rep. Comm. Linen Manuf. (1773), II. 291. He imports Irish Yarn, which he manufactures into Cheques and Stripes.
1889. Textile News, 5 April, 24/2. The chief goods in request are still the finer qualities of worsteds in stripes and checks.
5. Geol. A narrow band of rock interposed between strata of differing character.
1799. Kirwan, Geol. Ess., 302. Grey stone, with coal stripes.
1805. Jameson, Min. Descr. Dumfries, 153. In sandstone, limestone, and salt, regular and very extensive stripes are sometimes observed, which have been confounded with true strata seams.
1849. Murchison, Siluria, ii. (1854), 24. These contorted, crystalline rocks … are associated with stripes or patches … of different palæozoic rocks of Silurian, Devonian, and Carboniferous age.
6. A long narrow tract of land (occas. of ice). Cf. STRIP sb.2 1 c.
1801. H. Skrine, Rivers Gt. Brit., iii. 46. The extraordinary stripe of romantic beauty which environs them [i.e., the baths] must create a peculiar interest in Matlock.
1802. Home, Hist. Reb., i. 4. A narrow stripe of land, between the hills and the German Ocean.
1807. J. Headrick, View Mineral., etc. Arran, 309. The cultivated land is occupied in run-rig, or in narrow stripes, called butts, with intervals betwixt them, whose possessors are changed every second or third year.
1817. M. Birkbeck, Notes Journ. Amer. (1818), 26. The country, from Richmond to Fredericksburg, is a barren sandy level, relieved occasionally by a stripe of better soil, on the banks of a rivulet.
1823. A. Small, Roman Antiq., iii. 61. The very spot cannot be seen for a stripe of planting.
1823. Scoresby, Jrnl., 253. I reached a stripe of ice firmly frozen to the ground.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. xxi. 149. Narrow stripes of ice separated from each other by parallel moraines.
b. Anglo-Irish. (See quot.)
1888. Times, 8 Dec., 5/3. I believe the holdings of tenants in the neighbourhood are called ‘stripes’?—Yes.
7. A strip, shred; a narrow piece cut out.
1785. Cowper, Task, I. 40. Now came the cane from India…; sever’d into stripes That interlac’d each other, these supplied Of texture firm a lattice-work.
1799. Hull Advertiser, 28 Dec., 3/2. Bankers have been in the habit of paying their notes … sometimes with a stripe in the middle taken out.
1814. Scott, Wav., vi. He produced a letter, carefully folded, surrounded by a little stripe of flox-silk, according to ancient form.
1835. Browning, Paracelsus, IV. 200. Heap cassia, sandal-buds and stripes Of labdanum.
1843. Carlyle, Misc., Dr. Francia (1857), IV. 269. General Artegas was seen … sitting among field-officers, all on cow-skulls, toasting stripes of beef.
1875. Dasent, Vikings, I. 122. I will cut a red stripe out of each of your backs.
8. U.S. a. A particular shade or variety of political or religious doctrine; in wider sense, a sort, class, type.
1853. Congressional Globe, 11 Feb., 576/3. He has not been long in his present ‘stripe’ of politics. Ibid. (1854), 18 May, 1206/2. Every member of the Democratic party, of whatever shade or stripe, is perfectly honest.
1863. Battlefields of the South, I. vii. 93. Frank Blair pointed him out as ‘of the right stripe’—the ‘coming man.’
1875. Stedman, Vict. Poets, vii. (1887), 256. Various poems are of a democratic, liberal stripe, inspired by the struggle then commencing over Europe.
1890. Hosmer, Anglo-Sax. Freedom, 292. The religious faiths of the immigrants were various, not all of one stripe.
b. = STREAK sb. 6.
1860. O. W. Holmes, Elsie Venner, iii. [The dog had] a projection of the lower jaw, which looked as if there might be a bull-dog stripe among the numerous bar-sinisters of his lineage.
9. Black stripe = black strap: see BLACK a. 19.
1880. Barman’s & Barmaid’s Man., 55.
10. Comb. in parasynthetic adjs., chiefly Zool. and Bot., as stripe-breasted, -cheeked, -necked, -tailed, -throated; stripe-flowered, -leaved; also stripe-shadowed nonce-wd., crossed by stripes of shadow.
1837. W. Swainson, Birds W. Africa, I. 267. *Stripe-breasted Bristle-neck. Tricophorus strigilatus, Swains.
1802. Shaw, Naturalist’s Misc., XIII. Pl. 517. Trochilus superbus…. The *Stripe-cheeked Humming-bird.
1822. Hortus Anglicus, II. 171. B[rassica] Eruca. *Stripe flowered Cabbage, or Garden Rocket.
1796. W. Marshall, Planting, 11. 303. The English Oak admits of some Varieties:… There is one Variegation under the name of the *Stripe-leaved Oak.
1893. Lydekker, Roy. Nat. Hist., I. 472. The *stripe-necked mungoose (Herpestes viticollis).
1878. Meredith, Love in the Valley, xvii. Poet. Wks. (1912), 234. In a breezy link Freshly sparkles garden to *stripe-shadowed orchard.
1812. Shaw, Gen. Zool., VIII. 34. *Stripe-tailed Hornbill.
1837. Swainson, Birds W. Africa (1861), II. 241. *Stripe-throated Lapwing. Vanclius strigilatus, Swains.
