Pronunciations (4)
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/stɹaɪk/
Pronunciation notes
- General-American
- Received-Pronunciation
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/stiː.ɹaɪk/
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[stiː.ɹ̠ʌɪ̯k(ʰ)]
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stɹaɪk
Verb
To delete or cross out; to scratch or eliminate.
Usage- sometimes
- Transitive
- with out or through
- Examples
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Please strike the last sentence.
To have a sharp or sudden physical effect, as of a blow. To hit.
Usage- Transitive
- Synonyms
- Examples
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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,[…]
More examples (1)
The 0812 Huddersfield-Sheffield service struck the stabiliser leg of a lorry being used to take away portable toilets after local repair work.
To have a sharp or sudden physical effect, as of a blow. To give, as a blow; to impel, as with a blow; to give a force to; to dash; to cast.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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And they ſhall take of the blood and ſtrike it on the two ſide poſtes,[…]
Who would be free themselves must strike the blow?
To have a sharp or sudden physical effect, as of a blow. To deliver a quick blow or thrust; to give blows.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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A hammer strikes against the bell of a clock.
Nay when? ſtrike now, or elſe the Iron cooles.
To have a sharp or sudden physical effect, as of a blow. To manufacture, as by stamping.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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We will strike a medal in your honour.
More examples (1)
[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.
To have a sharp or sudden physical effect, as of a blow. To run upon a rock or bank; to be stranded; to run aground.
Usage- Dated
- Intransitive
- Examples
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The ship struck in the night.
To have a sharp or sudden physical effect, as of a blow. 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.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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The clock struck twelve. The drums strike up a march.
More examples (1)
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.
To have a sharp or sudden physical effect, as of a blow. To sound by percussion, with blows, or as if with blows.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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But hush! hark! a deep sound strikes like a rising knell!
To have a sharp or sudden physical effect, as of a blow. To cause or produce by a stroke, or suddenly, as by a stroke.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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to strike a light
And waving wide her mirtle wand / She ſtrikes a univerſall Peace through Sea and Land.
To have a sharp or sudden physical effect, as of a blow. To cause to ignite by friction.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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to strike a match
To thrust in; to cause to enter or penetrate.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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A tree strikes its roots deep.
To infest the flesh of a living vertebrate.
- Examples
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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.
To have a sharp or severe effect on a more abstract level. To punish; to afflict; to smite.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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Alſo to puniſh the iuſt is not good, nor to ſtrike princes for equitie.
To have a sharp or severe effect on a more abstract level. To carry out a violent or illegal action.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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.
To have a sharp or severe effect on a more abstract level. To act suddenly, especially in a violent or criminal way.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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The bank robber struck on the 2nd and 5th of May.
To have a sharp or severe effect on a more abstract level. To impinge upon.
Usage- Figurative
- Transitive
- Examples
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The first thing to strike my eye was a beautiful pagoda. Tragedy struck when his brother was killed in a bush fire.
More examples (1)
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.
To have a sharp or severe effect on a more abstract level. To impress, seem or appear to (a person).
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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Golf has always struck me as a waste of time.
More examples (1)
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.
To have a sharp or severe effect on a more abstract level. To create an impression.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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The news struck a sombre chord.
More examples (1)
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.
To have a sharp or severe effect on a more abstract level. To score a goal.
- Examples
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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.
To have a sharp or severe effect on a more abstract level. To make a sudden impression upon, as if by a blow; to affect with some strong emotion.
- Examples
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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[…].
More examples (1)
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.
To have a sharp or severe effect on a more abstract level. To affect by a sudden impression or impulse.
- Examples
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The proposed plan strikes me favourably.
I was struck dumb with astonishment.
To have a sharp or severe effect on a more abstract level. To steal or rob; to take forcibly or fraudulently.
Usage- UK usage
- Intransitive
- Obsolete
- Slang
- Examples
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Now we haue well bousd, let vs strike some chete.
More examples (1)
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.
To have a sharp or severe effect on a more abstract level. To borrow money from; to make a demand upon.
Usage- Archaic
- Slang
- Examples
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I must borrow money, / And that some call a striking; [...]
To touch; to act by appulse.
- Examples
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Let us conſider the red and white colours in Porphyre: Hinder light, but from ſtriking on it, and its Colours vaniſh[…].
To hook (a fish) by a quick turn of the wrist.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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Of course, almost any fool could strike a fish if it lay quiet in very shallow water.
To take down, especially in the following contexts. To haul down or lower (a flag, mast, etc.)
Usage- Transitive
To take down, especially in the following contexts. To capitulate; to signal a surrender by hauling down the colours.
Usage- broadly
- Transitive
- Examples
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The frigate has struck, sir! We've beaten them, the lily-livers!
More examples (1)
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.
To take down, especially in the following contexts. To stop working as a protest to achieve better working conditions.
Usage- broadly
- Intransitive
- Transitive
- Synonyms
- Examples
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The workers striked for better wages.
More examples (1)
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 […]
At the end of the week they struck for double pay and got it, because the job had to be done.
To take down, especially in the following contexts. To quit (one's job).
Usage- broadly
- Dated
- Transitive
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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.
To take down, especially in the following contexts. To dismantle and take away (a theater set; a tent; etc.).
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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More examples (1)
“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.
To take down, especially in the following contexts. To unfasten, to loosen (chains, bonds, etc.).
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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.
To set off on a walk or trip.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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They struck off along the river.
More examples (2)
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.
To pass with a quick or strong effect; to dart; to penetrate.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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Til a dart ſtrike through his liuer,[…]
More examples (1)
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[…].
To break forth; to commence suddenly; with into.
Usage- Dated
- Examples
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to strike into reputation; to strike into a run
To become attached to something; said of the spat of oysters.
Usage- Intransitive
To make and ratify; to reach; to find.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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to strike a bargain, deal or agreement
to strike a compromise
More examples (4)
to strike a pact
to strike a truce, to strike an uneasy truce
to strike an accord, alliance, ceasefire or armistice
to strike a balance, to strike a delicate balance between
To discover a source of something, often a buried raw material such as ore (especially gold) or crude oil.
- Examples
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to strike gold
Howard Franklin and Henry Madison strike gold on the Fortymile River...
To level (a measure of grain, salt, etc.) with a straight instrument, scraping off what is above the level of the top.
To cut off (a mortar joint, etc.) even with the face of the wall, or inward at a slight angle.
To hit upon, or light upon, suddenly.
- Examples
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My eye struck a strange word in the text. They soon struck the trail.
To lade thickened sugar cane juice from a teache into a cooler.
Usage- Obsolete
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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.
To stroke or pass lightly; to wave.
- Examples
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[…]Beholde, I thought, He will[…]ſtrike his hand ouer the place, and recouer the leper.
To apply or rub in liniment or ointment; to anoint.
Usage- UK usage
- dialectal
- Examples
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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.
To advance; to cause to go forward; used only in the past participle.
Usage- Obsolete
- Examples
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[…]Well ſtrooke in yeares,[…]
To balance (a ledger or account).
Usage- Transitive
To become saturated with salt.
Usage- Intransitive
- Obsolete
To run, or fade in colour.
Usage- Intransitive
- Obsolete
To do menial work for an officer.
Usage- US usage
- Intransitive
- Obsolete
Noun
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.
- Examples
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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.
The act of knocking down all ten pins on the first roll of a frame.
A work stoppage (or otherwise concerted stoppage of an activity) as a form of protest.
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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After an eleven-week strike, it was management that finally blinked.
A blow or application of physical force against something.
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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.
More examples (1)
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
An attack, not necessarily physical.
Usage- broadly
- Examples
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air strike; first strike
In an option contract, the price at which the holder buys or sells if they choose to exercise the option.
An old English measure of corn equal to the bushel.
Usage- Historical
- Examples
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The sum is also used for the quarter, and the strike for the bushel.
The status of being the batsman that the bowler is bowling at.
- Examples
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The batsmen have crossed, and Dhoni now has the strike.
The primary face of a hammer, opposite the peen.
The compass direction of the line of intersection between a rock layer and the surface of the Earth or another solid celestial body.
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.
Fullness of measure; the whole amount produced at one time.
Usage- Obsolete
- Examples
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a strike of malt; a strike of coin
Excellence; quality.
Usage- broadly
- Obsolete
- Examples
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More examples (1)
[…]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.
An iron pale or standard in a gate or fence.
A puddler's stirrer.
The extortion of money, or the attempt to extort money, by threat of injury; blackmail.
Usage- Obsolete
The discovery of a source of something.
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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).
The strike plate of a door.
A nibble on the bait by a fish.
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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.
A cancellation postmark.
An imperfect matrix for type.
Usage- Historical
Noun
a group's refusal to work in protest against low pay or bad work conditions
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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the strike lasted more than a month before it was settled
an attack that is intended to seize or inflict damage on or destroy an objective
- Examples
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the strike was scheduled to begin at dawn
a gentle blow
a score in tenpins: knocking down all ten with the first ball
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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he finished with three strikes in the tenth frame
(baseball) a pitch that the batter swings at and misses, or that the batter hits into foul territory, or that the batter does not swing at but the umpire judges to be in the area over home plate and between the batter's knees and shoulders
- Examples
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this pitcher throws more strikes than balls
a conspicuous success
- Broader terms
- Examples
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that song was his first hit and marked the beginning of his career
that new Broadway show is a real smasher
More examples (1)
the party went with a bang
Verb
deliver a sharp blow, as with the hand, fist, or weapon
- Broader terms
- Examples
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The teacher struck the child
the opponent refused to strike
More examples (1)
The boxer struck the attacker dead
have an emotional or cognitive impact upon
- Examples
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This child impressed me as unusually mature
This behavior struck me as odd
More examples (2)
he was dumb-struck by the news
her comments struck a sour note
hit against; come into sudden contact with
- Broader terms
- Examples
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The car hit a tree
He struck the table with his elbow
make a strategic, offensive, assault against an enemy, opponent, or a target
- Synonyms
- Examples
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The Germans struck Poland on Sept. 1, 1939
We must strike the enemy's oil fields
More examples (1)
in the fifth inning, the Giants struck, sending three runners home to win the game 5 to 2
indicate (a certain time) by striking
- Examples
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The clock struck midnight
Just when I entered, the clock struck
affect or afflict suddenly, usually adversely
- Synonyms
- Examples
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We were hit by really bad weather
He was stricken with cancer when he was still a teenager
More examples (1)
The earthquake struck at midnight
stop work in order to press demands
- Synonyms
- Examples
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The auto workers are striking for higher wages
The employees walked out when their demand for better benefits was not met
touch or seem as if touching visually or audibly
- Examples
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Light fell on her face
The sun shone on the fields
More examples (2)
The light struck the golden necklace
A strange sound struck my ears
attain
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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The horse finally struck a pace
produce by manipulating keys or strings of musical instruments
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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The pianist strikes a middle C
strike ‘z’ on the keyboard
cause to form (an electric arc) between electrodes of an arc lamp
- Examples
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strike an arc
find unexpectedly
- Examples
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the archeologists chanced upon an old tomb
she struck a goldmine
More examples (1)
The hikers finally struck the main path to the lake
produce by ignition or a blow
- Examples
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strike fire from the flintstone
strike a match
remove by erasing or crossing out or as if by drawing a line
- Examples
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Please strike this remark from the record
scratch that remark
cause to experience suddenly
- Examples
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Panic struck me
An interesting idea hit her
More examples (3)
A thought came to me
The thought struck terror in our minds
They were struck with fear
drive something violently into a location
- Synonyms
- Examples
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he hit his fist on the table
she struck her head on the low ceiling
occupy or take on
- Broader terms
- Examples
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He assumes the lotus position
She took her seat on the stage
More examples (3)
We took our seats in the orchestra
She took up her position behind the tree
strike a pose
disassemble a temporary structure, such as a tent or a theatrical set
- Broader terms
- Examples
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after the show, we'll have to strike the set and pack up
form by stamping, punching, or printing
- Broader terms
- Examples
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strike coins
strike a medal
smooth with a strickle
- Synonyms
- Examples
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strickle the grain in the measure
pierce with force
- Examples
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The bullet struck her thigh
The icy wind struck through our coats
hook by a pull on the line
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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strike a fish
arrive at after reckoning, deliberating, and weighing
- Broader terms
- Examples
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strike a balance
strike a bargain