Word: strike Part of Speech: verb Etymology: From Middle English stryken, from Old English strīcan, from Proto-West Germanic *strīkan, from Proto-Germanic *strīkaną, from Proto-Indo-European *streyg- (“to stroke, rub, press”). Cognate with Dutch strijken, German streichen, Danish stryge, Icelandic strýkja, strýkva. Pronunciation: /stɹaɪk/, /stiː.ɹaɪk/, [stiː.ɹ̠ʌɪ̯k(ʰ)] 1. To delete or cross out; to scratch or eliminate. Labels: sometimes, transitive Example: Please strike the last sentence. 2. To have a sharp or sudden physical effect, as of a blow. Labels: transitive Example: Strike the door sharply with your foot and see if it comes loose. A bullet struck him. The ship struck a reef. Example: […]he at Philippi kept / His ſword e’ne like a dancer, while I ſtrooke / The leane and wrinkled Caſſius,[…] 3. To have a sharp or sudden physical effect, as of a blow. Labels: transitive Example: And they ſhall take of the blood and ſtrike it on the two ſide poſtes,[…] Example: Who would be free themselves must strike the blow? 4. To have a sharp or sudden physical effect, as of a blow. Labels: intransitive Example: A hammer strikes against the bell of a clock. Example: Nay when? ſtrike now, or elſe the Iron cooles. 5. To have a sharp or sudden physical effect, as of a blow. Labels: transitive Example: We will strike a medal in your honour. Example: [I]n practice, small deformations will occur in the shell on striking the shuttering, or... alternatively, some small deformations are due to slightly imperfect placing of the original formwork. 6. To have a sharp or sudden physical effect, as of a blow. Labels: dated, intransitive Example: The ship struck in the night. 7. To have a sharp or sudden physical effect, as of a blow. Labels: transitive Example: The clock struck twelve. The drums strike up a march. Example: I read with my watch upon the table, purposing to close my book at eleven o’clock. As I shut it, Saint Paul’s, and all the many church-clocks in the City—some leading, some accompanying, some following—struck that hour. 8. To have a sharp or sudden physical effect, as of a blow. Labels: intransitive Example: But hush! hark! a deep sound strikes like a rising knell! 9. To have a sharp or sudden physical effect, as of a blow. Labels: transitive Example: to strike a light Example: And waving wide her mirtle wand / She ſtrikes a univerſall Peace through Sea and Land. 10. To have a sharp or sudden physical effect, as of a blow. Labels: transitive Example: to strike a match 11. To thrust in; to cause to enter or penetrate. Labels: transitive Example: A tree strikes its roots deep. 12. To infest the flesh of a living vertebrate. Example: The blowflies come in March, but if a man shears then the flies don’t bother much. The flies strike young lambs, but then the lambing could be regulated. 13. To have a sharp or severe effect on a more abstract level. Labels: transitive Example: Alſo to puniſh the iuſt is not good, nor to ſtrike princes for equitie. 14. To have a sharp or severe effect on a more abstract level. Labels: intransitive Example: 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. 15. To have a sharp or severe effect on a more abstract level. Labels: intransitive Example: The bank robber struck on the 2nd and 5th of May. 16. To have a sharp or severe effect on a more abstract level. Labels: figuratively, transitive Example: The first thing to strike my eye was a beautiful pagoda. Tragedy struck when his brother was killed in a bush fire. Example: 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. 17. To have a sharp or severe effect on a more abstract level. Labels: transitive Example: Golf has always struck me as a waste of time. Example: 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. 18. To have a sharp or severe effect on a more abstract level. Labels: transitive Example: The news struck a sombre chord. Example: 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. 19. To have a sharp or severe effect on a more abstract level. Example: 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. 20. To have a sharp or severe effect on a more abstract level. Example: to strike the mind with surprise; to strike somebody with wonder, alarm, dread, or horror Example: In like manner the writings of mere men[…]strike and surprise us most upon our first perusal of them[…]. 21. To have a sharp or severe effect on a more abstract level. Example: The proposed plan strikes me favourably. Example: I was struck dumb with astonishment. 22. To have a sharp or severe effect on a more abstract level. Labels: UK, intransitive, obsolete, slang Example: Now we haue well bousd, let vs strike some chete. Example: Hee being thus duſted with meale, intreated the meale man to wipe it out of his necke, and ſtoopte downe his head: the meale man laughing to ſee him ſo rayed and whited, was willing to ſhake off the meal, and the whilſt, while hee was buſie about that, the Nippe had ſtroken the purſe and done his feate, and both courteouſly thanked the meale man and cloſely / went away with his purchaſe. 23. To have a sharp or severe effect on a more abstract level. Labels: archaic, slang Example: I must borrow money, / And that some call a striking; [...] 24. To touch; to act by appulse. Example: Let us conſider the red and white colours in Porphyre: Hinder light, but from ſtriking on it, and its Colours vaniſh[…]. 25. To hook (a fish) by a quick turn of the wrist. Labels: transitive Example: Of course, almost any fool could strike a fish if it lay quiet in very shallow water. 26. To take down, especially in the following contexts. Labels: transitive 27. To take down, especially in the following contexts. Labels: broadly, transitive Example: The frigate has struck, sir! We've beaten them, the lily-livers! Example: He [King Charles II] ſent him [the Earl of Essex] Embaſſador to Denmark, where his behaviour in the affair of the flag gained him much reputation:[…]Lord Eſſex’s firſt buſineſs was to juſtify his behaviour in refuſing to ſtrike.[…]And he found very good materials to juſtify his conduct; ſince by formal treaties it had been expreſſly ſtipulated, that the Engliſh ſhips of war ſhould not ſtrike in the Daniſh ſeas. 28. To take down, especially in the following contexts. Labels: broadly, intransitive, transitive Example: Two men were put to work who could not set their looms; a third man was taken on who helped the inefficients to set the looms. The other weavers thought this was a breach of their union rules and 18 of them struck […] 29. To take down, especially in the following contexts. Labels: broadly, dated, transitive Example: It appears that a compositor had been engaged for the Northem Territory Times, and for a considerable time the editor seems to have led a comparatively unruffled existence; till in an evil hour the compositor was smitten with gold fever, and struck work. 30. To take down, especially in the following contexts. Labels: transitive Example: “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. Example: The crew struck the set with a ferocity hitherto unseen, an army more valiant in retreat than advance. 31. To take down, especially in the following contexts. Labels: transitive Example: He struck my chains, and gently spake and smiled: As they were loosened by that Hermit old, Mine eyes were of their madness half beguiled, To answer those kind looks. 32. To set off on a walk or trip. Labels: intransitive Example: They struck off along the river. Example: In February, 1883, Mr. Hosie again left Chʻung-chʻing, and proceeded north-west to Chʻêng-tu, the capital of the province of Ssŭ-chʻuan, by way of the brine and petroleum wells of Tzŭ-liu-ching....In June, 1884, Mr. Hosie again left Chʻung-chʻing, and form Ho Chou, a three days' journey to the north of that city, he struck westward through a beautifully cultivated and fertile country to Chia-ting Fu, on the right bank of the Min at its junction with the Tʻung River. 33. To pass with a quick or strong effect; to dart; to penetrate. Labels: intransitive Example: Til a dart ſtrike through his liuer,[…] Example: For if either the Story move us, or the Actor help the lameneſs of it with his performance, or now and then a glittering beam of wit or paſſion ſtrike through the obſcurity of the Poem, any of theſe are ſufficient to effect a preſent liking[…]. 34. To break forth; to commence suddenly; with into. Labels: dated Example: to strike into reputation; to strike into a run 35. To become attached to something; said of the spat of oysters. Labels: intransitive 36. To make and ratify; to reach; to find. Labels: transitive Example: to strike a bargain, deal or agreement Example: to strike a compromise 37. To discover a source of something, often a buried raw material such as ore (especially gold) or crude oil. Example: to strike gold Example: Howard Franklin and Henry Madison strike gold on the Fortymile River... 38. To level (a measure of grain, salt, etc.) with a straight instrument, scraping off what is above the level of the top. 39. To cut off (a mortar joint, etc.) even with the face of the wall, or inward at a slight angle. 40. To hit upon, or light upon, suddenly. Example: My eye struck a strange word in the text. They soon struck the trail. 41. To lade thickened sugar cane juice from a teache into a cooler. Labels: obsolete Example: In the teache the subject is still further evaporated, till it is judged sufficiently boiled to be removed from the fire. This operation is usually called striking; (i.e.) lading the liquor, now exceedingly thick, into the cooler. 42. To stroke or pass lightly; to wave. Example: […]Beholde, I thought, He will[…]ſtrike his hand ouer the place, and recouer the leper. 43. To apply or rub in liniment or ointment; to anoint. Labels: UK, dialectal Example: The mother said nothing to this, but gave nurse a certain ointment, with directions that she should strike (i.e. rub) the child's eyes with it. 44. To advance; to cause to go forward; used only in the past participle. Labels: obsolete Example: […]Well ſtrooke in yeares,[…] 45. To balance (a ledger or account). Labels: transitive 46. To become saturated with salt. Labels: intransitive, obsolete 47. To run, or fade in colour. Labels: intransitive, obsolete 48. To do menial work for an officer. Labels: US, intransitive, obsolete