streak

Pluralstreaks

Formsstreaks, streaking, streaked

1. 1
   long marknouncountable

   An irregular line or mark left by smearing or by motion.

   The worn wiper blades left greasy streaks across the windshield.

   A passing car turned into a bright streak of light in the long-exposure photo.

   Similarsmear, stripe, line, smudge

   Note

   The idea of a line runs through the word: Old English strica goes back to an Indo-European root meaning "line", with relatives in Danish streg, Swedish streck and Dutch streek. Streaks need not be dirt or blur; color laid down in bands counts too, as in Joseph C. Lincoln's bay, blue with light green streaks where the shoal showed.

2. 2
   run of lucknouncountable

   An unbroken run of similar events.

   The team's winning streak finally ended at eleven games.

   She's been on a lucky streak at the card table all week.

   Similarrun, spell, string

   Note

   It nearly always comes with a word saying what kind of run it is (winning, losing, lucky) and with on: you are on a winning streak until the cards turn against you. Of followed by a plural names the run itself, as in a streak of accomplishments you hope to keep up.

3. 3
   character traitnouncountable

   A trait or tendency that shows consistently in someone's personality without dominating it.

   Underneath all the charm, he has a mean streak his friends rarely see.

   There's a competitive streak in her that even board games bring out.

   Similarside

   Note

   An adjective almost always names the trait (a mean streak, a stubborn streak, a competitive streak), usually with have or there is: he has a mean streak. The word pictures a line running through a character rather than the whole of it, which suits a trait that surfaces now and then.

4. 4
   move fastverbintransitive

   To move very swiftly, or to run very fast.

   The express streaked through the station without slowing down.

   At dusk we watched the swifts streak over the rooftops.

   Similarrace, speed, zoom, flash, dash

   Note

   Speed here is seen as much as felt: what streaks by leaves a blur like the mark of motion. It nearly always takes a direction or a place, through, past, across or over, as when Cecil J. Allen, timing a train out of York, streaked through Doncaster at all but a mile a minute.

5. 5
   daily app countnouncountable

   A running count of consecutive days on which a user has interacted with another user or with a service, used as a game-like way to keep people engaged.

   He sends his best friend a photo every night just to keep their streak alive.

   The language app warned her that her 200-day streak would end at midnight.

   Note

   The app sense turns a run of like events into a counter on the screen, as with the Snapchat streak. People keep a streak alive, lose it or break it, and the worry about losing one is exactly what the design counts on to bring them back every day.

6. 6
   leave marksverbtransitive

   To mark something with streaks.

   Tears streaked her makeup as she listened to the news.

   Cleaning windows in direct sunlight can streak the glass.

   Similarsmear, smudge

   Note

   The subject can be the cause or the mark itself: tears streak makeup, but in Moby-Dick Melville lets the whale's boundary line streak him from stem to stern in two separate colors. The past participle with with is the common way to describe what has been marked: a sky streaked with red, hair streaked with gray.

7. 7
   verbintransitive

   To run naked through a public place.

   A fan streaked across the field at halftime before security caught him.

   Seniors dared each other to streak through the quad on the last night of classes.

   Note

   In early 1974 it was a campus fad, reported to have begun with a lone runner at Florida State University and spreading to students who streaked in pairs, then in groups. It still turns up at sporting events, where a fan streaks across the field until security catches up.

8. 8
   naked runnouncountable

   The act of running naked through a public place.

   His streak across the stadium made the evening news.

   The college finally banned the annual streak through the library during exam week.

9. 9
   leave marksverbintransitive

   To have or develop streaks.

   Cheap paint tends to streak when you roll it on too thin.

   Her waterproof mascara didn't streak, even after she cried at the wedding.

   Similarsmudge, smear, run

   Note

   The intransitive verb puts the surface in charge: a window streaks, paint streaks, mascara streaks or doesn't. Its transitive partner puts the cause in charge, so the same mishap can be told both ways: clean a window in direct sunlight and it will streak, or you will streak it.

10. 10
    powder colornouncountable

    The color of a mineral in powdered form, so called because a simple field test is to rub the mineral across unglazed white porcelain.

    Hematite can look black or silvery, but its streak is reddish brown.

    Pyrite leaves a greenish-black streak, which helps tell it apart from real gold.

11. 11
    ship plankingnouncountable

    In shipbuilding, a strake: one continuous line of planking or plating running along a ship's hull.

    The shipwright replaced a rotten streak just above the waterline.

    On a clinker-built boat, each streak overlaps the one below it.

    Similarstrake

    Note

    Shipwrights usually say strake, and streak is the rarer form. The bands are named by their position on the hull: the garboard strake lies next to the keel, and the sheer strake runs along the top edge.

12. 12
    mothnouncountable

    The moth species Chesias legatella, which belongs to the family Geometridae.

    This year's moth survey added a streak to the reserve's list for the first time.

    The recorder photographed the streak before releasing it at the edge of the heath.

Showing meanings only. Show all 14