strike

• 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. - 1996, Lyle Lovett, “Her First Mistake”, in The Road to Ensenada:

Synonyms: walkout

Antonyms: industrial peace lockout non-strike nonstrike

Hypernyms: labor action industrial action

Coordinate Terms: go-slow slowdown stayaway stayout work-to-rule

• 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,[…] - 1990, Chris Traish, Leigh Olsson, An...
• […] and they could hear the rough sound, could hear too the first strikes of rain as though called down by the music. - 1996, Annie Proulx, Accordion Crimes:
• 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...

• air strike; first strike

• The sum is also used for the quarter, and the strike for the bushel. - 1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 4, page 207:

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

• a strike of malt; a strike of coin

• Please strike the last sentence.

• 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,[…] - c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William...
• The 0812 Huddersfield-Sheffield service struck the stabiliser leg of a lorry being used to take away portable toilets after local repair work. - 2021 December 29, “Network News: RAIB: tighten up supervision after 27mph...

Synonyms: thump

1. (transitive) To hit.

2. (transitive) To give, as a blow; to impel, as with a blow; to give a force to; to dash; to cast.

   • And they ſhall take of the blood and ſtrike it on the two ſide poſtes,[…] - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Exodus 12:7, column 2:
   • Who would be free themselves must strike the blow? - 1812, Lord Byron, “Canto II”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. A Romaunt, London: […] [F]or John Murray, […]; William Blackwood, Edinburgh; and John Cumming, Dublin; by...

3. (intransitive) To deliver a quick blow or thrust; to give blows.

   • A hammer strikes against the bell of a clock.
   • Nay when? ſtrike now, or elſe the Iron cooles. - 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio),...

4. (transitive) To manufacture, as by stamping.

   • 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. - 1977, Jaques Heyman,...

5. (intransitive, dated) To run upon a rock or bank; to be stranded; to run aground.

   • The ship struck in the night.

6. (transitive) 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.

   • 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. - 1949 June 8, George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, London: Secker & Warburg, →OCLC, Part I, Chapter I:

7. (intransitive) To sound by percussion, with blows, or as if with blows.

   • But hush! hark! a deep sound strikes like a rising knell! - 1816, Lord Byron, “Canto III”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. Canto the Third, London: […] [F]or John Murray, […], →OCLC, stanza XXI, page 13:

8. (transitive) To cause or produce by a stroke, or suddenly, as by a stroke.

   • to strike a light
   • And waving wide her mirtle wand / She ſtrikes a univerſall Peace through Sea and Land. - 1629, John Milton, “On the Morning of Christs Nativity”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey...

9. (transitive) To cause to ignite by friction.

   • to strike a match

• A tree strikes its roots deep.

• 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. - 1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and...

• Alſo to puniſh the iuſt is not good, nor to ſtrike princes for equitie. - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 17:26, column 2:

1. (transitive) To punish; to afflict; to smite.

2. (intransitive) To carry out a violent or illegal action.

   • 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. - 1920,...

3. (intransitive) To act suddenly, especially in a violent or criminal way.

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

4. (transitive, figurative) To impinge upon.

   • 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...

5. (transitive) To impress, seem or appear to (a person).

   • 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...

6. (transitive) To create an impression.

   • 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....

7. (sports) To score a goal.

   • 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. - 2010 December 28, Marc Vesty, “Stoke 0-2 Fulham”, in BBC:

8. To make a sudden impression upon, as if by a blow; to affect with some strong emotion.

   • 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[…]. - 1734, Francis Atterbury, “A Sermon Preached at the Rolls, December 24, 1710: The Baptist's Message to Jesus, and...
   • 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. - 1734,...

9. To affect by a sudden impression or impulse.

   • The proposed plan strikes me favourably.
   • I was struck dumb with astonishment.

10. (intransitive, UK, obsolete, slang) To steal or rob; to take forcibly or fraudulently.

    • Now we haue well bousd, let vs strike some chete. - 1567, Thomas Harman, “The vpright Coſe cateth to the Roge. [The Upright Man speaketh to the Rogue.]”, in 'A Caveat or Warning for Common Cursitors, vulgarly called...
    • 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...

11. (slang, archaic) To borrow money from; to make a demand upon.

    • I must borrow money, / And that some call a striking; [...] - 1655, James Shirley, 'The Gentleman of Venice'; reprinted in William Gifford, Alexander Dyce, editors, 'The Dramatic Works and Poems of James Shirley',...

• Let us conſider the red and white colours in Porphyre: Hinder light, but from ſtriking on it, and its Colours vaniſh[…]. - 1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], “Some Farther Considerations Concerning Our Simple...

• Of course, almost any fool could strike a fish if it lay quiet in very shallow water. - 1894, Outing and the Wheelman, volume 24, page 56:

1. (nautical) To haul down or lower (a flag, mast, etc.)

2. (by extension) To capitulate; to signal a surrender by hauling down the colours.

   • 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...

3. (intransitive, by extension) To stop working as a protest to achieve better working conditions.

   • 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 […] -...

   Synonyms: strike work

4. (transitive, dated, by extension) To quit (one's job).

   • 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...

5. To dismantle and take away (a theater set; a tent; etc.).

   • “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...
   • The crew struck the set with a ferocity hitherto unseen, an army more valiant in retreat than advance. - 1979, Texas Monthly, volume 7, number 8, page 109:

6. To unfasten, to loosen (chains, bonds, etc.).

   • 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. - 1817 December, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Revolt...

• 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....
• 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,...

• Til a dart ſtrike through his liuer,[…] - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 7:23, column 2:
• 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...

• to strike into reputation; to strike into a run