Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun An instrument used in ancient Greece and Rome for scraping the skin after a bath.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun An instrument of metal, ivory, or horn, used by the ancients for scraping the skin at the bath and in the gymnasium; a flesh-scraper. See cut under
Lysippan . - noun A flesh-brush, or a glove of hair-cloth, rough toweling, or other article used for stimulating the skin by rubbing.
- noun In entomology: A pectinated spur on the legs of certain insects (bees, wasps, ants, bugs, etc.), used for removing foreign substances from the surface of the body. See
strigilis . - noun A curious asymmetrical organ composed of rows of black, closely packed, comb-like plates found on one side of the dorsal surface of the terminal abdominal segments of the males of certain Corisidæ.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Gr. & Rom. Antiq.) An instrument of metal, ivory, etc., used for scraping the skin at the bath.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun a
grooming tool used toscrape away dead skin, oil, dirt, etc.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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They likewise made use of the instrument called strigil, which was a kind of flesh-brush; a custom to which Persius alludes in this line,
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Here you get massaged with the thyme-infused oil and have the day’s dirt scraped off you with a curved instrument called a strigil.
Flushed W. Hodding Carter 2006
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Here you get massaged with the thyme-infused oil and have the day’s dirt scraped off you with a curved instrument called a strigil.
Flushed W. Hodding Carter 2006
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The Greeks and other mediterranean ancients, commonly cleaned themselves by rubbing with scented oils and then scraping themselves with a metal strigil, bringing off the dead skin and dirt with the oil (this is making a comeback now as a "modern" beauty method).
Archive 2009-06-01 Heather McDougal 2009
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The Greeks and other mediterranean ancients, commonly cleaned themselves by rubbing with scented oils and then scraping themselves with a metal strigil, bringing off the dead skin and dirt with the oil (this is making a comeback now as a "modern" beauty method).
A Bit of Soap Heather McDougal 2009
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They had a particular type of scraper (strigil) that they used to then collect all the olive oil and sweat and so on that had accumulated on their skin surface.
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Yesterday we joined many other Bears at a ren fair near Cov, didn't buy much * whistles* no really, I only got a strigil, a torc bracelet, a tiny leather pouch to keep OC money in and a pair of really nice glasses which are a wedding present for N & E ...
October 30th, 2005 dame_habonde 2005
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And so no doubt he would have of strigil and sistrum, if, instead of currycomb and cymbal, (which are the English names dictionaries render them by,) he could see stamped in the margin small pictures of these instruments, as they were in use amongst the ancients.
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Once scraped raw and now tingling with excitement, you go to the caldarium for a sauna or steam bath trailed by slaves carrying towels, oil, and perhaps a strigil—the more scraping, the better.
Flushed W. Hodding Carter 2006
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Once scraped raw and now tingling with excitement, you go to the caldarium for a sauna or steam bath trailed by slaves carrying towels, oil, and perhaps a strigil—the more scraping, the better.
Flushed W. Hodding Carter 2006
wackyvorlon commented on the word strigil
A flat scraper used by romans in bathing.
September 24, 2008
lamidave commented on the word strigil
The word strigil has also been used to name the stick with which a bartender wipes off excess foam after a beer mug is filled from the tap.
March 26, 2009