Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition

Strike

Strike

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp.
Struck
;
p. p.
Struck
,
Stricken
(
Stroock
,
Strucken
,
Obs.
);
p. pr. & vb. n.
Striking
. Struck is more commonly used in the p. p. than stricken.]
[OE.
striken
to strike, proceed, flow, AS.
strīcan
to go, proceed, akin to D.
strijken
to rub, stroke, strike, to move, go, G.
streichen
, OHG.
strīhhan
, L.
stringere
to touch lightly, to graze, to strip off (but perhaps not to L.
stringere
in sense to draw tight),
striga
a row, a furrow. Cf.
Streak
,
Stroke
.]
1.
To touch or hit with some force, either with the hand or with an instrument; to smite; to give a blow to, either with the hand or with any instrument or missile.
He at Philippi kept
His sword e’en like a dancer; while I
struck

The lean and wrinkled Cassius.
Shakespeare
2.
To come in collision with; to strike against;
as, a bullet
struck
him; the wave
struck
the boat amidships; the ship
struck
a reef
.
3.
To give, as a blow; to impel, as with a blow; to give a force to; to dash; to cast.
They shall take of the blood, and
strike
it on the two sideposts.
Ex. xii. 7.
Who would be free, themselves must
strike
the blow.
Byron.
4.
To stamp or impress with a stroke; to coin;
as, to
strike
coin from metal: to
strike
dollars at the mint
.
5.
To thrust in; to cause to enter or penetrate; to set in the earth;
as, a tree
strikes
its roots deep
.
6.
To punish; to afflict; to smite.
To punish the just is not good, nor
strike
princes for equity.
Prov. xvii. 26.
7.
To cause to sound by one or more beats; to indicate or notify by audible strokes;
as, the clock
strikes
twelve; the drums
strike
up a march
.
8.
To lower; to let or take down; to remove;
as, to
strike
sail; to
strike
a flag or an ensign, as in token of surrender; to
strike
a yard or a topmast in a gale; to
strike
a tent; to
strike
the centering of an arch
.
9.
To make a sudden impression upon, as by a blow; to affect sensibly with some strong emotion;
as, to
strike
the mind, with surprise; to
strike
one with wonder, alarm, dread, or horror
.
Nice works of art
strike
and surprise us most on the first view.
Atterbury.
They please as beauties, here as wonders
strike
.
Pope.
10.
To affect in some particular manner by a sudden impression or impulse;
as, the plan proposed
strikes
me favorably; to
strike
one dead or blind
.
How often has
stricken
you dumb with his irony!
Landor.
11.
To cause or produce by a stroke, or suddenly, as by a stroke;
as, to
strike
a light
.
Waving wide her myrtle wand,
She
strikes
a universal peace through sea and land.
Milton.
12.
To cause to ignite;
as, to
strike
a match
.
13.
To make and ratify;
as, to
strike
a bargain
.
☞ Probably borrowed from the L. foedus ferrire, to strike a compact, so called because an animal was struck and killed as a sacrifice on such occasions.
14.
To take forcibly or fraudulently;
as, to
strike
money
.
[Old Slang]
15.
To level, as a measure of grain, salt, or the like, by scraping off with a straight instrument what is above the level of the top.
16.
(Masonry)
To cut off, as a mortar joint, even with the face of the wall, or inward at a slight angle.
17.
To hit upon, or light upon, suddenly;
as, my eye
struck
a strange word; they soon
struck
the trail
.
18.
To borrow money of; to make a demand upon;
as, he
struck
a friend for five dollars
.
[Slang]
19.
To lade into a cooler, as a liquor.
B. Edwards.
20.
To stroke or pass lightly; to wave.
Behold, I thought, He will . . .
strike
his hand over the place, and recover the leper.
2 Kings v. 11.
21.
To advance; to cause to go forward; – used only in past participle.
“Well struck in years.”
Shak.
To strike an attitude
,
To strike a balance
.
See under
Attitude
, and
Balance
.
–
To strike a jury
(Law)
,
to constitute a special jury ordered by a court, by each party striking out a certain number of names from a prepared list of jurors, so as to reduce it to the number of persons required by law.
Burrill.
–
To strike a lead
.
(a)
(Mining)
To find a vein of ore.
(b)
Fig.: To find a way to fortune.
[Colloq.]
–
To strike a ledger
or
To strike an account
,
to balance it.
–
To strike hands with
.
(a)
To shake hands with
.
Halliwell.
(b)
To make a compact or agreement with; to agree with.
–
To strike off
.
(a)
To erase from an account; to deduct;
as,
to strike off
the interest of a debt
.
(b)
(Print.)
To impress; to print;
as,
to strike off
a thousand copies of a book
.
(c)
To separate by a blow or any sudden action;
as,
to strike off
what is superfluous or corrupt
.
–
To strike oil
,
to find petroleum when boring for it; figuratively, to make a lucky hit financially.
[Slang, U.S.]
–
To strike one luck
,
to shake hands with one and wish good luck.
[Obs.]
Beau. & Fl.
–
To strike out
.
(a)
To produce by collision; to force out,
as,
to strike out
sparks with steel
.
(b)
To blot out; to efface; to erase
. “To methodize is as necessary as to strike out.”
Pope.
(c)
To form by a quick effort; to devise; to invent; to contrive,
as,
to strike out
a new plan of finance
.
(d)
(Baseball)
To cause a player to strike out; – said of the pitcher. See
To strike out
, under
Strike
,
Verb.
I.
–
To strike sail
.
See under
Sail
.
–
To strike up
.
(a)
To cause to sound; to begin to beat
. “Strike up the drums.”
Shak.
(b)
To begin to sing or play; as, to strike up a tune.
(c)
To raise (as sheet metal), in making diahes, pans, etc., by blows or pressure in a die.
–
To strike work
,
to quit work; to go on a strike.

Strike

,
Verb.
I.
To move; to advance; to proceed; to take a course;
as, to
strike
into the fields
.
A mouse . . .
struck
forth sternly [bodily].
Piers Plowman.
2.
To deliver a quick blow or thrust; to give blows.
And fiercely took his trenchant blade in hand,
With which he
stroke
so furious and so fell.
Spenser.
Strike
now, or else the iron cools.
Shakespeare
3.
To hit; to collide; to dush; to clash;
as, a hammer
strikes
against the bell of a clock
.
4.
To sound by percussion, with blows, or as with blows; to be struck;
as, the clock
strikes
.
A deep sound
strikes
like a rising knell.
Byron.
5.
To make an attack; to aim a blow.
A puny subject
strikes

At thy great glory.
Shakespeare
Struck
for throne, and
striking
found his doom.
Tennyson.
6.
To touch; to act by appulse.
Hinder light but from
striking
on it [porphyry], and its colors vanish.
Locke.
7.
To run upon a rock or bank; to be stranded;
as, the ship
struck
in the night
.
8.
To pass with a quick or strong effect; to dart; to penetrate.
Till a dart
strike
through his liver.
Prov. vii. 23.
Now and then a glittering beam of wit or passion
strikes
through the obscurity of the poem.
Dryden.
9.
To break forth; to commence suddenly; – with into;
as, to
strike
into reputation; to
strike
into a run
.
10.
To lower a flag, or colors, in token of respect, or to signify a surrender of a ship to an enemy.
That the English ships of war should not
strike
in the Danish seas.
Bp. Burnet.
11.
To quit work in order to compel an increase, or prevent a reduction, of wages.
12.
To become attached to something; – said of the spat of oysters.
13.
To steal money.
[Old Slang, Eng.]
Nares.
To strike at
,
to aim a blow at.
–
To strike for
,
to start suddenly on a course for.
–
To strike home
,
to give a blow which reaches its object, to strike with effect.
–
To strike in
.
(a)
To enter suddenly
.
(b)
To disappear from the surface, with internal effects, as an eruptive disease
.
(c)
To come in suddenly; to interpose; to interrupt
. “I proposed the embassy of Constantinople for Mr. Henshaw, but my Lord Winchelsea struck in.”
Evelyn.
(d)
To join in after another has begun,as in singing.
–
To strike in with
,
to conform to; to suit itself to; to side with, to join with at once.
“To assert this is to strike in with the known enemies of God's grace.”
South.
–
To strike out
.
(a)
To start; to wander; to make a sudden excursion;
as,
to strike out
into an irregular course of life
.
(b)
To strike with full force
.
(c)
(Baseball)
To be put out for not hitting the ball during one's turn at the bat.
–
To strike up
,
to commence to play as a musician; to begin to sound, as an instrument.
“Whilst any trump did sound, or drum struck up.”
Shak.

Strike

,
Noun.
1.
The act of striking.
2.
An instrument with a straight edge for leveling a measure of grain, salt, and the like, scraping off what is above the level of the top; a strickle.
3.
A bushel; four pecks.
[Prov. Eng.]
Tusser.
4.
An old measure of four bushels.
[Prov. Eng.]
5.
Fullness of measure; hence, excellence of quality.
Three hogsheads of ale of the first
strike
.
Sir W. Scott.
6.
An iron pale or standard in a gate or fence.
[Obs.]
Strikes
are the insurrections of labor.
F. A. Walker.
8.
(Iron Working)
A puddler's stirrer.
9.
(Geol.)
The horizontal direction of the outcropping edges of tilted rocks; or, the direction of a horizontal line supposed to be drawn on the surface of a tilted stratum. It is at right angles to the dip.
10.
The extortion of money, or the attempt to extort money, by threat of injury; blackmailing.
Strike block
(Carp.)
,
a plane shorter than a jointer, used for fitting a short joint.
Moxon.
–
Strike of flax
,
a handful that may be hackled at once.
[Obs. or Prov. Eng.]
Chaucer.
–
Strike of sugar
.
(Sugar Making)
(a)
The act of emptying the teache, or last boiler, in which the cane juice is exposed to heat, into the coolers
.
(b)
The quantity of the sirup thus emptied at once.

Webster 1828 Edition

Strike

STRIKE

,
Verb.
T.
pret. struck; pp. struck and stricken; but struck is in the most common use. Strook is wholly obsolete. [G., to pass, move or ramble, to depart, to touch, to stroke, to glide or glance over, to lower or strike, as sails, to curry; L., to sweep together, to spread, as a plaster, to play on a violin, to card, as wool, to strike or whip, as with a rod; a stroke, stripe or lash.]
1.
To touch or hit with some force, either with the hand or an instrument; to give a blow to, either with the open hand, the fist, a stick, club or whip, or with a pointed instrument, or with a ball or an arrow discharged. An arrow struck the shield; a ball strikes a ship between wind and water.
He at Philippi kept his sword een like a dancer, while I struck the lean and wrinkled Cassius.
2.
To dash; to throw with a quick motion.
They shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side-posts. Exodus 12.
3.
To stamp; to impress; to coin; as, to strike coin at the mint; to strike dollars or sovereigns; also, to print; as, to strike five hundred copies of a book.
4.
To thrust in; to cause to enter or penetrate; as, a tree strikes its root deep.
5.
To punish; to afflict; as smite is also used.
To punish the just is not good, nor to strike princes for equity. Proverbs 17.
6.
To cause to sound; to notify by sound; as, the clock strikes twelve; the drums strike up a march.
7.
To run upon; to be stranded. The ship struck at twelve, and remained fast.
8.
To pass with a quick or strong effect; to dart; to penetrate.
Now and then a beam of wit or passion strikes through the obscurity of the poem.
9.
To lower a flag or colors in token of respect, or to signify a surrender of the ship to an enemy.
10.
To break forth; as, to strike into reputation. [Not in use.]
To strike in, to enter suddenly; also, to recede from the surface, as an eruption; to disappear.
To strike in with, to conform to; to suit itself to; to join with at once.
To strike out, to wander; to make a sudden excursion; as, to strike out into an irregular course of life.
To strike, among workmen in manufactories, in England, is to quit work I a body or by combination, in order to compel their employers to raise their wages.

STRIKE

,
Noun.
1.
An instrument with a straight edge for leveling a measure of grain, salt and the like, for scraping off what is above the level of the top.
2.
A bushel; four pecks. [Local.]
3.
A measure of four bushels or half a quarter. [Local.]
Strike of flax, a handful that may be hackled at once. [Local.]

Definition 2024

strike

strike

English

Verb

strike ‎(third-person singular simple present strikes, present participle striking, simple past struck, past participle struck or stricken)

  1. (transitive, sometimes with out or through) To delete or cross out; to scratch or eliminate.
    Please strike the last sentence.‎
  2. (heading, physical) To have a sharp or sudden effect.
    1. (transitive) To hit.
      Strike the door sharply with your foot and see if it comes loose.  A bullet struck him.  The ship struck a reef.‎
      • William Shakespeare (c.1564–1616)
        He at Philippi kept / His sword e'en like a dancer; while I struck / The lean and wrinkled Cassius.
    2. (transitive) To give, as a blow; to impel, as with a blow; to give a force to; to dash; to cast.
      • Bible, Exodus xii.7:
        They shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two sideposts.
      • Lord Byron (1788-1824)
        Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow.
    3. (intransitive) To deliver a quick blow or thrust; to give blows.
      A hammer strikes against the bell of a clock.‎
    4. (transitive) To manufacture, as by stamping.
      We will strike a medal in your honour.‎
    5. (intransitive, dated) To run upon a rock or bank; to be stranded.
      The ship struck in the night.‎
    6. (transitive) To cause to sound by one or more beats; to indicate or notify by audible strokes. Of a clock, to announce (an hour of the day), usually by one or more sounds.
      The clock struck twelve.  The drums strike up a march.‎
    7. (intransitive) To sound by percussion, with blows, or as if with blows.
      • Lord Byron (1788-1824)
        A deep sound strikes like a rising knell.
    8. (transitive) To cause or produce by a stroke, or suddenly, as by a stroke.
      to strike a light‎
      • John Milton (1608-1674)
        Waving wide her myrtle wand, / She strikes a universal peace through sea and land.
    9. (transitive) To cause to ignite by friction.
      to strike a match‎
  3. (transitive) To thrust in; to cause to enter or penetrate.
    A tree strikes its roots deep.‎
  4. (heading, personal, social) To have a sharp or severe effect.
    1. (transitive) To punish; to afflict; to smite.
      • Bible, Proverbs xvii.26:
        To punish the just is not good, nor strike princes for equity.
    2. (intransitive) To carry out a violent or illegal action.
      • 1920, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Avery Hopwood, The Bat, chapterI:
        The Bat—they called him the Bat. Like a bat he chose the night hours for his work of rapine; like a bat he struck and vanished, pouncingly, noiselessly; like a bat he never showed himself to the face of the day.
    3. (intransitive) To act suddenly, especially in a violent or criminal way.
      The bank robber struck on the 2nd and 5th of May.‎
    4. (transitive, figuratively) To impinge upon.
      The first thing to strike my eye was a beautiful pagoda.  Tragedy struck when his brother was killed in a bush fire.‎
      • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 1, in The Celebrity:
        In the old days, to my commonplace and unobserving mind, he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, […], and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned. But he had then none of the oddities and mannerisms which I hold to be inseparable from genius, and which struck my attention in after days when I came in contact with the Celebrity.
    5. (intransitive) To stop working to achieve better working conditions.
      The workers struck for a week before the new contract went through.‎
    6. (transitive) To impress, seem or appear (to).
      Golf has always struck me as a waste of time.‎
      • 1895, H. G. Wells, The Time Machine, Ch.X:
        I fancied at first the stuff was paraffin wax, and smashed the jar accordingly. But the odor of camphor was unmistakable. It struck me as singularly odd, that among the universal decay, this volatile substance had chanced to survive, perhaps through many thousand years.
    7. (transitive) To create an impression.
      The news struck a sombre chord.‎
      • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 20, in The China Governess:
        The story struck the depressingly familiar note with which true stories ring in the tried ears of experienced policemen. No one queried it. It was in the classic pattern of human weakness, mean and embarrassing and sad.
    8. (sports) To score a goal.
      • 2010 December 28, Marc Vesty, “Stoke 0-2 Fulham”, in BBC:
        Defender Chris Baird struck twice early in the first half to help Fulham move out of the relegation zone and ease the pressure on manager Mark Hughes.
    9. (intransitive, Britain, obsolete, slang) To steal money.
      (Can we find and add a quotation of Nares to this entry?)
    10. (transitive, Britain, obsolete, slang) To take forcibly or fraudulently.
      to strike money‎
    11. To make a sudden impression upon, as if by a blow; to affect with some strong emotion.
      to strike the mind with surprise;  to strike somebody with wonder, alarm, dread, or horror‎
      • Francis Atterbury (1663-1732)
        Nice works of art strike and surprise us most on the first view.
      • Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
        They please as beauties, here as wonders strike.
    12. To affect by a sudden impression or impulse.
      The proposed plan strikes me favourably.  May the Lord strike down those sinners!  I was struck dumb with astonishment.‎
    13. (slang, archaic) To borrow money from; to make a demand upon.
      He struck a friend for five dollars.‎
  5. To touch; to act by appulse.
    • John Locke (1632-1705)
      Hinder light but from striking on it [porphyry], and its colours vanish.
  6. (heading, transitive) To take down, especially in the following contexts.
    1. (nautical) To haul down or lower (a flag, mast, etc.)
    2. (by extension) To capitulate; to signal a surrender by hauling down the colours.
      The frigate has struck, sir! We've beaten them, the lily-livers!‎
      • Bishop Burnet (1643-1715)
        The English ships of war should not strike in the Danish seas.
    3. To dismantle and take away (a theater set; a tent; etc.).
      • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Ch.22:
        “Strike the tent there!”—was the next order. As I hinted before, this whalebone marquee was never pitched except in port; and on board the Pequod, for thirty years, the order to strike the tent was well known to be the next thing to heaving up the anchor.
  7. (intransitive) To set off on a walk or trip.
    They struck off along the river.‎
    • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
      I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.
  8. (intransitive) To pass with a quick or strong effect; to dart; to penetrate.
    • Bible, Proverbs vii.23:
      till a dart strike through his liver
    • John Dryden (1631-1700)
      Now and then a glittering beam of wit or passion strikes through the obscurity of the poem.
  9. (dated) To break forth; to commence suddenly; with into.
    to strike into reputation;  to strike into a run‎
  10. (intransitive) To become attached to something; said of the spat of oysters.
  11. To make and ratify.
    to strike a bargain‎
  12. To level (a measure of grain, salt, etc.) with a straight instrument, scraping off what is above the level of the top.
  13. (masonry) To cut off (a mortar joint, etc.) even with the face of the wall, or inward at a slight angle.
  14. To hit upon, or light upon, suddenly.
    My eye struck a strange word in the text.  They soon struck the trail.‎
  15. To lade into a cooler, as a liquor.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of B. Edwards to this entry?)
  16. To stroke or pass lightly; to wave.
    • Bible, 2 Kings v.11:
      Behold, I thought, He will […] strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper.
  17. (obsolete) To advance; to cause to go forward; used only in the past participle.
  18. To balance (a ledger or account).

Usage notes

Custom influences which participle is used in set phrases and specific contexts, but in general, the past participle "struck" is more common when speaking of intransitive actions (e.g. He'd struck it rich, or He's struck out on his own, etc.), whereas "stricken" is more commonly used for transitive actions, especially constructions where the subject is the object of an implied action (e.g. The Court has stricken the statement from the record, or The city was stricken with disease, etc.)

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

strike ‎(plural strikes)

  1. (baseball) A status resulting from a batter swinging and missing a pitch, or not swinging at a pitch in the strike zone, or hitting a foul ball that is not caught.
  2. (bowling) The act of knocking down all ten pins in on the first roll of a frame.
  3. A work stoppage (or otherwise concerted stoppage of an activity) as a form of protest.
  4. A blow or application of physical force against something.
    Thus hand strikes now include single knuckle strikes, knife hand strikes, finger strikes, ridge hand strikes etc., and leg strikes include front kicks, knee strikes, axe kicks, ...
  5. (finance) In an option contract, the price at which the holder buys or sells if they choose to exercise the option.
  6. An old English measure of corn equal to the bushel.
    • 1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England Volume 4, page 207:
      The sum is also used for the quarter, and the strike for the bushel.
  7. (cricket) The status of being the batsman that the bowler is bowling at.
    • The batsmen have crossed, and Dhoni now has the strike.
  8. The primary face of a hammer, opposite the peen.
  9. (geology) The compass direction of the line of intersection between a rock layer and the surface of the Earth.
  10. An instrument with a straight edge for levelling a measure of grain, salt, etc., scraping off what is above the level of the top; a strickle.
  11. (obsolete) Fullness of measure; hence, excellence of quality.
    • Sir Walter Scott
      Three hogsheads of ale of the first strike.
  12. An iron pale or standard in a gate or fence.
  13. (ironworking) A puddler's stirrer.
  14. (obsolete) The extortion of money, or the attempt to extort money, by threat of injury; blackmail.
  15. The discovery of a source of something.
    • 2013 August 3, “Yesterday’s fuel”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:
      The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania. The first barrels of crude fetched $18 (around $450 at today’s prices).
  16. A strike plate.

Antonyms

Derived terms

Translations

Anagrams

Italian

Noun

strike m ‎(invariable)

  1. strike (in baseball and ten-pin bowling)

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowing from English strike.

Pronunciation

  • (Brazil) IPA(key): /ˈstɾajk/, /is.ˈtɾaj.ki/

Noun

strike m (plural strikes)

  1. (bowling) strike (the act of knocking down all pins)
  2. (baseball) strike (the act of missing a swing at the ball)

Spanish

Noun

strike m ‎(plural strikes)

  1. (baseball) strike
  2. (bowling) strike

Etymology

From Middle English striken, from Old English strīcan, from Proto-Germanic *strīkaną. Cognate with Dutch strijken, German streichen and streiken, Danish stryge, Icelandic strýkja, strýkva.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /stɹaɪk/
  • Rhymes: -aɪk

Similar Results