Literary notes about strap (AI summary)
The term “strap” is employed in literature with a broad range of meanings, from a tangible object to a marker of character identity. It frequently signifies a leather band or fastening device—used both practically to secure objects like bags, belts, or equipment ([1], [2], [3], [4]) and metaphorically, evoking images of restraint or even the tension of a pathway ([5], [6]). At times it appears as an inventive character name in dialogue or narrative, lending a touch of whimsy or familiarity to the text ([7], [8], [9], [10]). In other instances, “strap” connotes actions of binding or tying, whether in a physical sense, as someone adjusts the buckle on a rifle or a bag is fastened across the shoulder ([11], [12]), or as a vivid illustration in similes that compare lengths or paths to a leather strap ([13]). This multifaceted use enriches the text by grounding abstract ideas in the concrete image of a strap, while also contributing to character development and atmospheric detail.
- The bag of torn paper under his arm was fastened across one shoulder by a strap.
— from The Railway Children by E. Nesbit - The battery and wire are carried in a leather bag, which the traveler fastens by a strap to his shoulders.
— from A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne - A strap is fastened to it, which goes over the neck, holding the mouth of the sack breast high, while the bottom reaches nearly to the ground.
— from Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup - The German lay upon the sofa sleeping stertorously with a strap round his upper arms and another round his legs.
— from His Last Bow: An Epilogue of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle - The paths were as even and level as a leather strap, and it was pleasant to imagine what they would be like when they were strewn with yellow sand.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - He walked by a long road, straight as a taut strap.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - At bedtime we were shown to our apartments; the old usurer, Strap, and I, to one room; the captain, his wife, and Miss Jenny, to another.
— from The Adventures of Roderick Random by T. Smollett - Strap replied with great eagerness, “Yes, and had on a brown coat, with long skirts.”
— from The Adventures of Roderick Random by T. Smollett - At length, Strap, who could hold no longer, addressed me thus: “Well, fools and their money are soon parted.
— from The Adventures of Roderick Random by T. Smollett - I would have declined the invitation, but Strap whispered to me that the gentleman would be affronted, and I complied.
— from The Adventures of Roderick Random by T. Smollett - CHARLOTTA wears a man’s old peaked cap; she has unslung a rifle from her shoulders and is putting to rights the buckle on the strap.
— from Plays by Anton Chekhov, Second Series by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - There was a small portmanteau in the room, and this he pulled out and began to strap.
— from A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle - There’s that long avenue going straight, straight, like a stretched strap; it shines on moonlight nights.
— from Plays by Anton Chekhov, Second Series by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
