Translation guide
The English word "strip" has several distinct meanings. This guide covers the most common uses for learners: removing a covering or layer, taking off clothes, a long narrow piece of something, and a comic strip. Each meaning has different natural Japanese expressions.
To take off paint, wallpaper, bark, or a surface layer from something.
General verb for peeling or stripping off something attached, like a sticker, wallpaper, or paint. Transitive.
Strip the wallpaper.
It took time to strip the paint.
To peel or strip off an outer layer, often used for fruit, bark, or skin. Transitive.
Strip the bark off the tree.
More general 'remove', can be used for stripping away something unwanted. Slightly formal.
Strip off the old paint.
To remove clothing, either one's own or someone else's.
Standard verb for taking off clothes (shirt, pants, etc.). Transitive.
Strip off one's clothes.
He stripped off his shirt.
Literally 'become naked', used for stripping completely. Intransitive.
To strip off clothes forcibly or roughly. Can sound violent.
A strip of paper, cloth, land, etc.
A sequence of drawings in a newspaper or magazine.
The loanword ストリップ (sutorippu) means 'striptease' in Japanese. Do not use it to mean simply taking off clothes; use 脱ぐ or 裸になる instead.
彼は裸になった。
He stripped naked.
服を剥ぎ取られた。
I was stripped of my clothes.
布の切れ端
a strip of cloth