Strike /(?)/

Strike

v. t.

imp. Struck; p. p. Struck; p. pr. & vb. n. Striking

  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. [Obs.]
    He at Philippi kept His sword e'en like a dancer; while I struck The lean and wrinkled Cassius.
  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.
  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.
    They please as beauties, here as wonders strike.
  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!
  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.
  12. To cause to ignite; as, to strike a match.
  13. To make and ratify; as, to strike a bargain.
  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. To cut off, as a mortar joint, even with the face of the wall, or inward at a slight angle. (Masonry)
  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.
  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.

Phrases & Compounds
To strike an attitude
See under Attitude, and Balance.
To strike a jury
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.
To strike a lead
To find a vein of ore.
To strike a ledger
to balance it.
To strike hands with
To shake hands with
To strike off
To erase from an account; to deduct; as, to strike off the interest of a debt
To strike oil
to find petroleum when boring for it; figuratively, to make a lucky hit financially.
To strike one luck
to shake hands with one and wish good luck.
To strike out
To produce by collision; to force out, as, to strike out sparks with steel.
To strike sail
See under Sail.
To strike up
To cause to sound; to begin to beat
To strike work
to quit work; to go on a strike.

Strike

v. i.
  1. 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.
    Strike now, or else the iron cools.
  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.
  5. To make an attack; to aim a blow.
    A puny subject strikes At thy great glory.
    Struck for throne, and striking found his doom.
  6. To touch; to act by appulse.
    Hinder light but from striking on it [porphyry], and its colors vanish.
  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.
  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.
  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.]

Phrases & Compounds
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
To enter suddenly
To strike in with
to conform to; to suit itself to; to side with, to join with at once.
To strike out
To start; to wander; to make a sudden excursion; as, to strike out into an irregular course of life.
To strike up
to commence to play as a musician; to begin to sound, as an instrument.

Strike

n.
  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.]
  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.
  6. An iron pale or standard in a gate or fence. [Obs.]
  7. The act of quitting work; specifically, such an act by a body of workmen, usually organized by a labor union, done as a means of enforcing compliance with demands made on their employer.
    Strikes are the insurrections of labor.
    — F. A. Walker.
  8. A puddler's stirrer. (Iron Working)
  9. 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. (Geol.)
  10. The extortion of money, or the attempt to extort money, by threat of injury; blackmailing.
  11. A sudden finding of rich ore in mining; hence, any sudden success or good fortune, esp. financial.
  12. The act of leveling all the pins with the first bowl; also, the score thus made. Sometimes called double spare. Throwing a strike entitles the player to add to the score for that frame the total number of pins knocked down in the next two bowls. (Bowling, U. S.)
  13. Any actual or constructive striking at the pitched ball, three of which, if the ball is not hit fairly, cause the batter to be put out; hence, any of various acts or events which are ruled as equivalent to such a striking, as failing to strike at a ball so pitched that the batter should have struck at it. (Baseball)
  14. Same as Ten-strike. (Tenpins)

Phrases & Compounds
Strike block
a plane shorter than a jointer, used for fitting a short joint.
Strike of flax
a handful that may be hackled at once.
Strike of sugar
The act of emptying the teache, or last boiler, in which the cane juice is exposed to heat, into the coolers