Word.ws English Dictionary

strapping

strapping is the present participle and gerund of strap.

Adjective

strapping (comparative more strapping, superlative most strapping)

  1. Having a sturdy muscular physique; robust.
    • But while the two strapping front men battered Foster, they could not better him, and in the absence of tangible reward for his creative efforts, Pennant almost took matters into his own hands, curling a low free-kick inches wide of Foster's left-hand upright.2011 February 12, Les Roopanarine, “Birmingham 1 - 0 Stoke”, in BBC
    • As he waited for his seminar to begin, a “very tall, handsome” man walked in. “He was strapping,” Browde recalled decades later, and everyone looked up and clocked him.2023 December 2, Jonny Steinberg, “The Mandela behind the mask”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 2
  2. (obsolete) (of a young woman) full of vigor; lusty.

Noun

strapping (countable and uncountable, plural strappings)

  1. Adhesive plaster for strapping injuries.
    • Jones had heavy strapping on his left thigh and it was tempting to wonder what José Mourinho, his manager at Manchester United, will have made of it in a week of withdrawals from Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur players.2017 November 10, Daniel Taylor, “Youthful England earn draw with Germany but Lingard rues late miss”, in The Guardian (London)
  2. A length of narrow material to be used for straps, or straps collectively.
  3. A beating with a strap.
  4. The act of fastening with a strap.

Meaning of strap

Verb

strap (third-person singular simple present straps, present participle strapping, simple past and past participle strapped)

  1. (transitive) To beat or chastise with a strap; to whip, to lash.
  2. (transitive) To fasten or bind with a strap.
    • I strapped my son into the back seat.
  3. (transitive) To sharpen by rubbing on a strap; to strop.
    • to strap a razor
  4. (transitive) To slap or stroke the muscled areas of a horse with a cloth or pad, a form of massage meant to improve muscle tone.

See all 19 meanings of strap

Synonyms of strapping

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

Forms of strapping

Adjective
comparativemore strapping
superlativemost strapping
Noun
pluralstrappings

Words formed from strapping

Phrases with strapping

Words that rhyme with strapping

1 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about strapping

What does strapping mean?
Strapping means having a sturdy muscular physique; robust.
What is strapping the present participle and gerund of?
Strapping is the present participle and gerund of strap.
What part of speech is strapping?
Strapping can be an adjective or a noun.

Words near strapping in the dictionary

  1. strappier
  2. strappies
  3. strappiest
  4. strappin'
  5. strappiness
  6. strapping
  7. strapping in
  8. strapping on
  9. strapping on a pair
  10. strapping on the feedbag
  11. strapping tape

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: strapping (page history and authors); strap (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “strapping.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/strapping. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.