stripe

Everyday

1. A stripe is a long thin line of colour on something, like on a zebra or a flag. tree →
2. A stripe on a uniform can show a person's rank. tree →
3. A stripe can also be a blow with a whip or stick as a punishment. tree →

In the lessons

Maths: a thing counted on flags, shirts, animals or patterns; patterns of stripes that repeat. Science: zebras and tigers have stripes for camouflage. Everyday: a striped shirt, a stripy jumper, the stars and stripes (the US flag).

Examples

• The flag has 13 stripes. tree →
• Each shirt has 5 blue stripes. tree →
• A zebra has many black stripes. tree →
• She painted 4 red stripes and 3 white stripes. tree →
• No two zebras have the same stripes. tree →
• The pattern goes red stripe, white stripe, red stripe. tree →
• A tiger's stripes help it hide in tall grass. tree →
• The king ordered a hundred stripes to be laid on her tender body; she sighed a long sigh. tree →

Note

Countable: a stripe, stripes; adjective striped or stripy. The thing counted; «each shirt has 5 stripes» is a rate, so stripes = shirts × 5. Trap: stripe is not strip.

In Jewish tradition

"Stripe" means a blow or lash, the mark made on the body by a beating. In Proverbs stripes are a punishment for fools, and a wise man learns more from a rebuke than a fool does from a hundred of them.

Interpretation. "Stripe for stripe" is part of "an eye for an eye." The rabbis taught that it means paying fair money for the harm done. The limit of forty lashes keeps a punishment from becoming cruel, and later tradition gave thirty-nine so as never to go over.

Examples

• burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. (Torah EXO.21.25, JPS 1917) tree →
• Forty stripes he may give him, he shall not exceed; lest, if he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes, then thy brother should be dishonoured before thine eyes. (Torah DEU.25.3, JPS 1917) tree →
• Judgments are prepared for scorners, and stripes for the back of fools. (Writings PRO.19.29, JPS 1917) tree →
• Sharp wounds cleanse away evil; so do stripes that reach the inward parts. (Writings PRO.20.30, JPS 1917) tree →
• A rebuke entereth deeper into a man of understanding than a hundred stripes into a fool. (Writings PRO.17.10, JPS 1917) tree →

Note

Countable: a stripe, stripes; adjective striped or stripy. The thing counted; «each shirt has 5 stripes» is a rate, so stripes = shirts × 5. Trap: stripe is not strip.