v. 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

He at Philippi kept
His sword e'en like a dancer; while I struck
The lean and wrinkled Cassius. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To give, as a blow; to impel, as with a blow; to give a force to; to dash; to cast. [ 1913 Webster ]

They shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two sideposts. Ex. xii. 7. [ 1913 Webster ]

Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow. Byron. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To stamp or impress with a stroke; to coin; as, to strike coin from metal: to strike dollars at the mint. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. To thrust in; to cause to enter or penetrate; to set in the earth; as, a tree strikes its roots deep. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. To punish; to afflict; to smite. [ 1913 Webster ]

To punish the just is not good, nor strike princes for equity. Prov. xvii. 26. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

Nice works of art strike and surprise us most on the first view. Atterbury. [ 1913 Webster ]

They please as beauties, here as wonders strike. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

How often has stricken you dumb with his irony! Landor. [ 1913 Webster ]

11. To cause or produce by a stroke, or suddenly, as by a stroke; as, to strike a light. [ 1913 Webster ]

Waving wide her myrtle wand,
She strikes a universal peace through sea and land. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

12. To cause to ignite; as, to strike a match. [ 1913 Webster ]

13. To make and ratify; as, to strike a bargain. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

14. To take forcibly or fraudulently; as, to strike money. [ Old Slang ] [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

16. (Masonry) To cut off, as a mortar joint, even with the face of the wall, or inward at a slight angle. [ 1913 Webster ]

17. To hit upon, or light upon, suddenly; as, my eye struck a strange word; they soon struck the trail. [ 1913 Webster ]

18. To borrow money of; to make a demand upon; as, he struck a friend for five dollars. [ Slang ] [ 1913 Webster ]

19. To lade into a cooler, as a liquor. B. Edwards. [ 1913 Webster ]

20. To stroke or pass lightly; to wave. [ 1913 Webster ]

Behold, I thought, He will . . . strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. 2 Kings v. 11. [ 1913 Webster ]

21. To advance; to cause to go forward; -- used only in past participle. “Well struck in years.” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

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, v. 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To move; to advance; to proceed; to take a course; as, to strike into the fields. [ 1913 Webster ]

A mouse . . . struck forth sternly [ bodily ]. Piers Plowman. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To deliver a quick blow or thrust; to give blows. [ 1913 Webster ]

And fiercely took his trenchant blade in hand,
With which he stroke so furious and so fell. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

Strike now, or else the iron cools. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To hit; to collide; to dush; to clash; as, a hammer strikes against the bell of a clock. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To sound by percussion, with blows, or as with blows; to be struck; as, the clock strikes. [ 1913 Webster ]

A deep sound strikes like a rising knell. Byron. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. To make an attack; to aim a blow. [ 1913 Webster ]

A puny subject strikes
At thy great glory. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Struck for throne, and striking found his doom. Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. To touch; to act by appulse. [ 1913 Webster ]

Hinder light but from striking on it [ porphyry ], and its colors vanish. Locke. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. To run upon a rock or bank; to be stranded; as, the ship struck in the night. [ 1913 Webster ]

8. To pass with a quick or strong effect; to dart; to penetrate. [ 1913 Webster ]

Till a dart strike through his liver. Prov. vii. 23. [ 1913 Webster ]

Now and then a glittering beam of wit or passion strikes through the obscurity of the poem. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

9. To break forth; to commence suddenly; -- with into; as, to strike into reputation; to strike into a run. [ 1913 Webster ]

10. To lower a flag, or colors, in token of respect, or to signify a surrender of a ship to an enemy. [ 1913 Webster ]

That the English ships of war should not strike in the Danish seas. Bp. Burnet. [ 1913 Webster ]

11. To quit work in order to compel an increase, or prevent a reduction, of wages. [ 1913 Webster ]

12. To become attached to something; -- said of the spat of oysters. [ 1913 Webster ]

13. To steal money. [ Old Slang, Eng. ] Nares. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. The act of striking. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A bushel; four pecks. [ Prov. Eng. ] Tusser. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. An old measure of four bushels. [ Prov. Eng. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

5. Fullness of measure; hence, excellence of quality. [ 1913 Webster ]

Three hogsheads of ale of the first strike. Sir W. Scott. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. An iron pale or standard in a gate or fence. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

Strikes are the insurrections of labor. F. A. Walker. [ 1913 Webster ]

8. (Iron Working) A puddler's stirrer. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

10. The extortion of money, or the attempt to extort money, by threat of injury; blackmailing. [ 1913 Webster ]

11. A sudden finding of rich ore in mining; hence, any sudden success or good fortune, esp. financial. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

12. (Bowling, U. S.) 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. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. +PJC ]

13. (Baseball) 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. “It's one, two, three strikes you're out in the old ball game.” [ Take me out to the ball game ] [ Webster 1913 Suppl. +PJC ]

14. (Tenpins) Same as Ten-strike. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Baseball) an out made by a batter against whom three strikes were called in a single at-bat; also, the same out as credited to the pitcher, in the scoring of the game. [ PJC ]

n. 1. One who, or that which, strikes; specifically, a blacksmith's helper who wields the sledge. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A harpoon; also, a harpooner. [ 1913 Webster ]

Wherever we come to an anchor, we always send out our strikers, and put out hooks and lines overboard, to try fish. Dampier. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A wencher; a lewd man. [ Obs. ] Massinger. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. A workman who is on a strike. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. A blackmailer in politics; also, one whose political influence can be bought. [ Political Cant ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Baseball) the area above home plate where, if a pitched ball passes through and is not hit by the batter, the pitch counts as a strike. Specifically, it is directly above home plate and at a height from the knees to the shoulders of the batter. [ PJC ]

a. & n. from Strike, v. [ 1913 Webster ]

Striking distance, the distance through which an object can be reached by striking; the distance at which a force is effective when directed to a particular object. --
Striking plate. (a) The plate against which the latch of a door lock strikes as the door is closed. (b) A part of the centering of an arch, which is driven back to loosen the centering in striking it. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Affecting with strong emotions; surprising; forcible; impressive; very noticeable; as, a striking representation or image; a striking resemblance. “A striking fact.” De Quincey. -- Strik"ing*ly, adv. -- Strik"ing*ness, n. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. See Strickle. [ 1913 Webster ]