Obs. [f. FORE- pref.] A forward stroke (in bell-ringing and in sword-play).
1674. N. Fairfax, A Treatise of the Bulk and Selvedge of the World, 96. If the forestroke give us but a little tick, the backstroke will be sure to give him a knocker.
1684. R. H., School Recreat., 86. So must they successively strike one after another, both Fore-stroke and Back-stroke, in a due Musical Time or Equi-distance, to render their Harmony the more pleasant.
1688. Bunyan, Jerus. Sinner Saved (1886), 64. God’s Word hath two edges; it can cut back-stroke and fore-stroke.
1779. Forrest, Voy. N. Guinea, 238. He presently seems to discover an opponent, advances towards him; steps back, jumps on one side, and then on the other; sometimes throws down his spear, and draws his sword, with which, fore stroke and back stroke, he cleaves the air.
attrib. 1726. Amherst, Terræ Fil., xiv. 72. If, for once, I may be judge in my own case, to be punished by Whigs and Tories too for the same thing, is, I think, a little too hard usage; ’tis such fore-stroke and back-stroke play, as I cannot possibly understand.
