strike

verb

1. (sometimes, transitive)To delete or cross out; to scratch or eliminate.

   “Please strike the last sentence.”

2. (transitive)To have a sharp or sudden physical effect, as of a blow.

   “Strike the door sharply with your foot and see if it comes loose.  A bullet struck him.  The ship struck a reef.”

   “[…]he at Philippi kept / His ſword e’ne like a dancer, while I ſtrooke / The leane and wrinkled Caſſius,[…]”

   “The 0812 Huddersfield-Sheffield service struck the stabiliser leg of a lorry being used to take away portable toilets after local repair work.”

3. (transitive)To have a sharp or sudden physical effect, as of a blow.

   “And they ſhall take of the blood and ſtrike it on the two ſide poſtes,[…]”

   “Who would be free themselves must strike the blow?”

4. (intransitive)To have a sharp or sudden physical effect, as of a blow.

   “A hammer strikes against the bell of a clock.”

   “Nay when? ſtrike now, or elſe the Iron cooles.”

5. (transitive)To have a sharp or sudden physical effect, as of a blow.

   “We will strike a medal in your honour.”

   “[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. (dated, intransitive)To have a sharp or sudden physical effect, as of a blow.

   “The ship struck in the night.”

7. (transitive)To have a sharp or sudden physical effect, as of a blow.

   “The clock struck twelve.  The drums strike up a march.”

   “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.”

   “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”

8. (intransitive)To have a sharp or sudden physical effect, as of a blow.

   “But hush! hark! a deep sound strikes like a rising knell!”

9. (transitive)To have a sharp or sudden physical effect, as of a blow.

   “to strike a light”

   “And waving wide her mirtle wand / She ſtrikes a univerſall Peace through Sea and Land.”

10. (transitive)To have a sharp or sudden physical effect, as of a blow.

    “to strike a match”

11. (transitive)To thrust in; to cause to enter or penetrate.

    “A tree strikes its roots deep.”

12. To infest the flesh of a living vertebrate.

    “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. (transitive)To have a sharp or severe effect on a more abstract level.

    “Alſo to puniſh the iuſt is not good, nor to ſtrike princes for equitie.”

14. (intransitive)To have a sharp or severe effect on a more abstract level.

    “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. (intransitive)To have a sharp or severe effect on a more abstract level.

    “The bank robber struck on the 2nd and 5th of May.”

16. (figuratively, transitive)To have a sharp or severe effect on a more abstract level.

    “The first thing to strike my eye was a beautiful pagoda.  Tragedy struck when his brother was killed in a bush fire.”

    “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. (transitive)To have a sharp or severe effect on a more abstract level.

    “Golf has always struck me as a waste of time.”

    “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. (transitive)To have a sharp or severe effect on a more abstract level.

    “The news struck a sombre chord.”

    “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.

    “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.

    “to strike the mind with surprise;  to strike somebody with wonder, alarm, dread, or horror”

    “In like manner the writings of mere men[…]strike and surprise us most upon our first perusal of them[…].”

    “Court-virtues bear, like gems, the highest rate, / Born where Heav'n's influence scarce can penetrate. / In life's low vale, the soil the virtues like, / They please as beauties, here as wonders strike.”

21. To have a sharp or severe effect on a more abstract level.

    “The proposed plan strikes me favourably.”

    “I was struck dumb with astonishment.”

22. (UK, intransitive, obsolete, slang)To have a sharp or severe effect on a more abstract level.

    “Now we haue well bousd, let vs strike some chete.”

    “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. (archaic, slang)To have a sharp or severe effect on a more abstract level.

    “I must borrow money, / And that some call a striking; [...]”

24. To touch; to act by appulse.

    “Let us conſider the red and white colours in Porphyre: Hinder light, but from ſtriking on it, and its Colours vaniſh[…].”

25. (transitive)To hook (a fish) by a quick turn of the wrist.

    “Of course, almost any fool could strike a fish if it lay quiet in very shallow water.”

26. (transitive)To take down, especially in the following contexts.
27. (broadly, transitive)To take down, especially in the following contexts.

    “The frigate has struck, sir! We've beaten them, the lily-livers!”

    “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. (broadly, intransitive, transitive)To take down, especially in the following contexts.

    “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. (broadly, dated, transitive)To take down, especially in the following contexts.

    “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. (transitive)To take down, especially in the following contexts.

    ““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.”

    “The crew struck the set with a ferocity hitherto unseen, an army more valiant in retreat than advance.”

31. (transitive)To take down, especially in the following contexts.

    “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. (intransitive)To set off on a walk or trip.

    “They struck off along the river.”

    “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.”

    “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.”

33. (intransitive)To pass with a quick or strong effect; to dart; to penetrate.

    “Til a dart ſtrike through his liuer,[…]”

    “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. (dated)To break forth; to commence suddenly; with into.

    “to strike into reputation;  to strike into a run”

35. (intransitive)To become attached to something; said of the spat of oysters.
36. (transitive)To make and ratify; to reach; to find.

    “to strike a bargain, deal or agreement”

    “to strike a compromise”

    “to strike a pact”

    “to strike a truce, to strike an uneasy truce”

    “to strike an accord, alliance, ceasefire or armistice”

37. To discover a source of something, often a buried raw material such as ore (especially gold) or crude oil.

    “to strike gold”

    “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.

    “My eye struck a strange word in the text.  They soon struck the trail.”

41. (obsolete)To lade thickened sugar cane juice from a teache into a cooler.

    “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.

    “[…]Beholde, I thought, He will[…]ſtrike his hand ouer the place, and recouer the leper.”

43. (obsolete)To advance; to cause to go forward; used only in the past participle.

    “[…]Well ſtrooke in yeares,[…]”

44. (transitive)To balance (a ledger or account).
45. (intransitive, obsolete)To become saturated with salt.
46. (intransitive, obsolete)To run, or fade in colour.
47. (US, intransitive, obsolete)To do menial work for an officer.

noun

1. A status resulting from a batter swinging and missing a pitch, or not swinging at a pitch when the ball goes in the strike zone, or hitting a foul ball that is not caught.

   “It was then I knew I had made my third mistake. Yes, three strikes right across the plate, and as I hollered "Honey, please wait" she was gone.”

2. The act of knocking down all ten pins 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,[…]”

   “[…] and they could hear the rough sound, could hear too the first strikes of rain as though called down by the music.”

   “He's got machine guns and hatchets and swords / And some missiles and foods with trans-fats / He will unleash mass destruction, you're dead / You just got smashed... by the ¶ Attack of the Wrath of the / War of the Death of the / Strike of the Sword of the / Blood... of the Beast”

5. (broadly)An attack, not necessarily physical.

   “air strike; first strike”

6. In an option contract, the price at which the holder buys or sells if they choose to exercise the option.
7. (historical)An old English measure of corn equal to the bushel.

   “The sum is also used for the quarter, and the strike for the bushel.”

8. The status of being the batsman that the bowler is bowling at.

   “The batsmen have crossed, and Dhoni now has the strike.”

9. The primary face of a hammer, opposite the peen.
10. The compass direction of the line of intersection between a rock layer and the surface of the Earth or another solid celestial body.
11. 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.
12. (obsolete)Fullness of measure; the whole amount produced at one time.

    “a strike of malt; a strike of coin”

13. (broadly, obsolete)Excellence; quality.

    “[…]our cellarer shall have orders to deliver to thee a butt of sack, a runlet of Malvesie, and three hogsheads of ale of the first strike, yearly—If that will not quench thy thirst, thou must come to court, and become acquainted with my butler.”

14. An iron pale or standard in a gate or fence.
15. A puddler's stirrer.
16. (obsolete)The extortion of money, or the attempt to extort money, by threat of injury; blackmail.
17. The discovery of a source of something.

    “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).”

18. The strike plate of a door.
19. A nibble on the bait by a fish.

    “I must admit that my focus was divided, which limited my fishing success. I made a few casts, then arranged my inanimate subjects and took photos. When my indicator went down on my first strike, I cleanly missed the hook up.”

20. A cancellation postmark.
21. (historical)An imperfect matrix for type.

name

1. A surname.