# strike

Pronunciation: say "STRYK" /stɹaɪk/

## Verb

1. To hit someone or something hard or with force, with the hand, a tool or weapon, or by crashing into it.
   - Simple: To hit someone or something hard, or to crash into them.
   - _The hammer struck the metal plate with a loud clang._
   - _She watched the waves strike the rocks below the cliff._
3. To stop working as a deliberate, collective protest in order to win better pay or conditions.
   - Simple: To stop working on purpose, as a group, to demand better pay or conditions.
   - _Teachers across the state voted to strike for smaller class sizes._
   - _The dockworkers struck the port authority over unpaid overtime._
5. To give a particular impression to someone, or to seem a certain way to them.
   - Simple: To give someone a certain feeling or impression.
   - _The proposal struck the committee as overly ambitious._
   - _His calm manner can strike strangers as cold._
6. To affect someone suddenly through a strong impression or impulse.
   - Simple: To suddenly affect someone with a strong feeling or thought.
   - _Inspiration struck the painter as she watched the sunset._
   - _Panic may strike even experienced climbers near the summit._
8. To attack suddenly, often without warning; to carry out a violent, harmful or criminal act against a target.
   - Simple: To attack suddenly and without warning, as an animal, a criminal or an enemy might.
   - _The burglars struck again last night, this time downtown._
   - _Terrorists may strike where security is weakest._
9. To deliver a sudden blow or thrust, as in combat or an attack.
   - Simple: To hit out at someone or something with a quick blow.
   - _The viper struck the moment it sensed movement._
   - _Skilled swordsmen strike and recover in a single motion._
11. To delete or cross out written material; to remove or eliminate something.
   - Simple: To remove words by crossing them out or deleting them.
   - _The judge ordered the lawyers to strike the remark from the record._
   - _She struck his name from the guest list after the argument._
12. To make and confirm an arrangement, such as a deal or bargain, by reaching agreement.
   - Simple: To reach and agree on something, such as a deal.
   - _Negotiators struck a bargain that satisfied both parties._
   - _The two companies hope to strike a deal to share their delivery trucks._
22. To discover a source of something, especially a buried raw material such as ore, gold, or oil.
   - Simple: To suddenly find a hidden supply of something, like gold or oil.
   - _The prospectors struck a rich vein of silver in 1849._
   - _Drillers hoped to strike oil before their funding ran out._
24. To cause a match to ignite by drawing it quickly against a rough surface.
   - Simple: To light a match by rubbing it quickly against a rough surface.
   - _He struck a match and held it to the kindling._
   - _Strike the match firmly or it won't catch._
13. To cause a bell or clock to sound, especially to announce an hour of the day by one or more strokes.
   - Simple: To make a bell or clock sound, often to mark the time.
   - _The cathedral clock struck midnight._
   - _Town clocks strike each hour to mark the passing day._
14. In soccer and similar games, to score by putting the ball into the goal.
   - Simple: In some sports, to score a goal against the other team.
   - _The forward struck in the final minute to win the match._
   - _The young forward needs only one chance to strike, and the home crowd knows it._
25. To manufacture an object such as a coin or medal by stamping it from metal.
   - Simple: To make coins or medals by pressing or stamping metal.
   - _The royal mint struck a commemorative coin for the coronation._
   - _Engravers strike each badge from a single blank of steel._
27. To hook a fish by a quick turn of the wrist the moment it bites.
   - Simple: To hook a fish by quickly turning the wrist.
   - _The angler struck the salmon with a sharp flick of the wrist._
   - _Experienced anglers strike the fish at the first sign of a bite._
28. To dismantle and take away a theater set, tent, or similar temporary structure.
   - Simple: To take apart and carry away a stage set, tent, or similar setup.
   - _The stagehands struck the set overnight so the theater would be empty by morning._
   - _Volunteers strike the marquee as soon as the wedding guests leave._
29. To haul down or lower a flag, sail, or mast, often as a signal aboard a vessel.
   - Simple: To take down or lower a flag, sail, or mast.
   - _The crew struck the mainmast to ride out the gale._
   - _Defeated captains would strike their colors as a sign of surrender._
30. To thrust something in so that it enters or penetrates a surface.
   - Simple: To push something sharp into a surface so that it goes in.
   - _The miner struck his pick into the rock face._
   - _Ice climbers strike their axes into the frozen wall and pull themselves up._
31. To pass through quickly and forcefully; to dart or penetrate.
   - Simple: To move or pass through quickly with a strong effect.
   - _The icy wind struck through his thin jacket as he waited for the bus._
   - _Flashes of lightning strike through the night sky._
15. To punish someone or bring suffering on them, with a sharp and severe effect.
   - Simple: To punish someone or make them suffer very badly.
   - _She was certain that heaven would strike him for the way he had treated his mother._
   - _A wasting disease struck the herd, and within a month half the cattle were dead._
17. To begin a walk or journey, usually heading off in a particular direction.
   - Simple: To start walking or traveling, often in a certain direction.
   - _If we strike out along the ridge now, we can reach the hut before dark._
   - _Leaving the car at the trailhead, they struck into the forest on a narrow deer path._
19. To reach and make an impact on someone or something without a physical blow, as a sight catches the eye or misfortune falls on a family.
   - Simple: To reach and affect someone or something, like a sight that catches your eye.
   - _A faint sound of music struck his ear as he passed the open window._
   - _Bright red barns strike the eye from miles away on the open prairie._
20. To make something happen or appear by hitting, or to bring it about all at once as if by a blow.
   - Simple: To make something appear by hitting, or to make it happen suddenly.
   - _Groping through the dark cellar, he tried to strike a light._
   - _The sight of the warships on the horizon struck terror into the harbor towns._

## Noun

2. A concerted stoppage of work, or of another activity, carried out as a form of protest.
   - Simple: A protest in which a group of people stop working, or stop doing something else such as eating, to demand change.
   - _The transit strike left thousands of commuters stranded for days._
   - _Hunger strikes have long been used by prisoners to draw attention to their cause._
4. An offensive action against a target, not necessarily involving physical force.
   - Simple: A sudden attack, which may or may not involve physical force.
   - _The army launched a strike against the enemy's command center._
   - _Analysts warned of a possible cyber strike on the power grid._
7. In baseball, a pitch charged against the batter: a missed swing, a pitch taken in the strike zone, a foul tip, or a foul ball with fewer than two strikes (or any foul bunt).
   - Simple: In baseball, a pitch that counts against the batter, such as a missed swing.
   - _A called strike on the corner ended the at-bat._
   - _He fouled off several pitches with two strikes against him._
10. A blow, or the application of physical force, delivered against something.
   - Simple: A hard, sudden hit against something or someone.
   - _The fighter's strike landed squarely on his opponent's chin._
   - _A lightning strike split the old oak tree in two._
23. In bowling, the knocking down of all ten pins with the first roll of a frame.
   - Simple: In bowling, knocking down all ten pins with your first ball.
   - _He needed a strike in the tenth frame to win._
   - _A clean strike sent all ten pins flying off the lane._
26. A fish's nibble or bite on the bait, felt as a tug through the line.
   - Simple: A small bite or pull on the bait from a fish.
   - _A sudden strike bent the rod tip toward the water._
   - _She sat on the dock all morning, rod in hand, waiting for a strike that never came._
16. The act of finding a source of something, often a buried deposit of oil.
   - Simple: The finding of a supply of something, often oil in the ground.
   - _Shares in the drilling company soared after it announced a major oil strike off the coast._
   - _Prospectors poured into the valley as word of fresh strikes spread down the river._
18. In cricket, the position of facing the bowling, held by whichever of the two batsmen the bowler is delivering the ball to.
   - Simple: In cricket, being the one of the two batsmen who faces the bowler.
   - _He took a single off the last ball of the over to keep the strike._
   - _A scrambled leg bye handed the strike back to the set batsman._
21. An official warning or black mark recorded against someone, where reaching a fixed number of them triggers a penalty.
   - Simple: One of a fixed number of official warnings, after which someone is punished.
   - _The landlord gave him a strike for the noise complaint and said two more would mean eviction._
   - _Under the new policy, drivers who collect three strikes in a year lose their license._

## Other meanings

- (noun) In an option contract, the fixed price at which the holder may buy or sell the underlying asset upon exercising the option.
- (noun) In geology, the compass direction of the horizontal line where a tilted rock layer or other planar feature meets a horizontal plane.
- (verb) Of a ship, to hit a rock or shoal and become stuck.
- (verb) To take something by theft or force, or obtain it by fraud.
- (verb) To approach someone for a loan or other favor.
- (verb) To make contact with something, as one body meeting another.
- (verb) To surrender, signaling it by lowering one's flag.
- (verb) To give up one's employment.
- (verb) To loosen or remove chains, ropes or other restraints.
- (verb) With into, to burst out or suddenly start something, such as a song or a gallop.
- (verb) Of young oysters, to settle and fix themselves to a surface.
- (verb) To make a heaped container of grain or salt level by drawing a straightedge across its rim.
- (verb) To finish a mortar joint flush with the wall face, or angled a little inward.
- (verb) To come upon or think of something suddenly, such as a path or an idea.
- (verb) In sugar making, to ladle boiled-down cane juice from the final boiling pan, the teache, to a cooling vessel.
- (verb) To pass a hand or object gently over something, or to wave it.
- (verb) In the past participle only, to be advanced or far along, as in being well on in years.
- (verb) To total the money in and out of an account or ledger to find what remains.
- (verb) Of fish or meat being cured, to become fully soaked with salt.
- (verb) Of a dye or color, to bleed or fade.
- (verb) To do chores as an officer's personal servant.
- (noun) A dry measure once used in England for grain, matching one bushel in volume.
- (noun) The flat end of a hammerhead used to deliver blows, at the other end from the peen.
- (noun) A straight-edged tool for scraping excess off a heaped measure of grain or salt to level it.
- (noun) The total output of one batch or run, or a full and complete measure.
- (noun) Fine quality or merit.
- (noun) An upright iron bar forming part of a fence or gate.
- (noun) A stirring tool used by a puddler to work molten iron.
- (noun) Extortion, or an effort at it, in which someone demands money under threat of harm.
- (noun) The metal plate on a door frame that receives the latch or bolt.
- (noun) A postmark applied to cancel a stamp.
- (noun) A matrix for casting type that has been struck from a punch but not yet trued up.

## Origin

From Middle English stryken, from Old English strīcan, going back through Proto-Germanic to the Proto-Indo-European root *streyg- ("to stroke, rub, press"). It is related to Dutch strijken and German streichen.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/strike (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).