Forms: α. 1 strica, 4 stric, stryk, 5 strick(e, 5–6 stryke, 5–7 strike; β. 5 strek, 5–6 streke, 6 streeke, 6–7 streek, streake, 6– streak. [OE. strica wk. masc., f. weak-grade of the Teut.-root *strĭk-: see STRIKE v. The α and β forms represent a difference of dialectal phonetic development: in the α forms the ĭ remained (cf. prick sb.:—OE. prica); in the β forms the OE. ĭ in open syllable became ME. ē (with strēke cf. week, ME. wēke:—OE. wicu). It is probable that the spelling strike, stryke in the late 16th and early 17th c. sometimes represents a pronunciation (strīk), so that these forms would really belong to the α class. Cf. Goth. strik-s, OHG., mod.G. strich masc., MDu. strēke (Du. streek fem.), which agree in sense and root-grade with the Eng. sb.]
† 1. A line, mark, stroke; esp. one used as a sign or character in writing or as a unit or degree in measurement. Obs.
α. c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., II. 200. An strica oððe an stæf [L. iota unum aut unus apex] ðære ealdan æe ne bið forʓæʓed oðþæt hi ealle ʓefyllede beon.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), III. 249. Esdras … fonde up newe manere titles and strikes [L. apices litterarum] to write among þe lettres.
c. 1391. Chaucer, Astrol., II. § 12. 24. & endith in the nexte strik of the plate. Ibid. Techyng by swych strikes the howres of planetes by ordre as thei sitten in the heuene.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 3024. The shede þurghe þe shyre here shone as þe lilly, Streght as a strike, straght þurgh the myddes.
c. 1460. [see β.].
1530. Palsgr., 58. There is a stryke above the hed of au, by cause the accent of the worde is there.
1598. W. Phillip, trans. Langenes’ Voy. Ships Holland E. Ind., 11. We found that our Compasses helde two Strikes to farre Northwarde.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., I. 178. Upon this Exchequer board is laid a cloth … rewed with strikes distant one from another a foote.
1611. trans. Serlio’s Archit., IV. vii. 34 b. The strickes of the Columnes, which wee call Chanels or hollowings, shall be 24. in number.
β. c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 479/1. Strek, or poynt be-twyx ij. clausys yn a boke (S. W. poyntinge of ij. clauses), liminiscus.
c. 1460. J. Metham, Wks., 89. Yef in the same lyne be suche strykys descende and in the myddys be cutte or deuyded with other lynes or strekes.
1545. in Archæologia, XLIII. 237. iiij copys of ymagerye worke with strekes of golds.
1594. Blundevil, Exerc., I. xxvii. (ed. 7), 65. Minutes are marked with one streek over the head, seconds with two streekes, thirds with three streekes.
1633. B. Jonson, Tale Tub, IV. i. Scene interloping 41. Cle. Zure, you can gage ’hun. Med. To a streake, or lesse: I know his d’ameters, and circumference.
1650. Bulwer, Anthropomet., xxii. 238. Men and women use to cut three streaks on their body.
1664. Power, Exp. Philos., I. 7. View them [the wings of the butterfly] in the Microscope, and you may see the very streaks of the Coelestial pencil that drew them.
1735. Dyche & Pardon, Dict., Streak, a Line or Mark make to put Things in order by, &c.
† b. A cutting stroke. Obs. rare–1.
1725. Bradley’s Family Dict., s.v. Pears, Give them [sc. the pears] a streak upon the Head with the point of a Knife.
2. A thin irregular line of a different color or substance from that of the material or surface of which it forms a part.
α. 1585. Higins, Junius’ Nomencl., 414/2. Marble hauing white specks or stricks in it.
β. 1577. Grange, Golden Aphrod., H iv b. And teares with streakes doth paynte Their lether cheekes.
1646. Suckling, Poems (1648), 39. For streaks of red were mingled there, Such as are on a Katherne Pear.
1666. G. Harvey, Morbus Angl., xxi. (1672), 50. A high coloured Urin with a number of small streeks of fat, swimming a top in the form of a Cobweb.
1667. Milton, P. L., XI. 879. But say, what mean those colourd streaks in Heavn [sc. a rainbow].
1718. Prior, Solomon, I. 77. While the fantastic Tulip strives to break In two-fold Beauty, and a parted Streak.
1784. Cowper, Task, VI. 241. Not a flow’r But shows some touch, in freckle, streak, or stain, Of his unrivall’d pencil.
1796. Withering, Brit. Plants (ed. 3), III. 613. Petals … purple, with 3 or 4 darker streaks.
1845. Budd, Dis. Liver, 220. Streaks of a black substance were observed in the matter which was vomited.
1845–7. Longf., Evang., II. iv. 172. Then there appeared and spread faint streaks of gray o’er her forehead.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., II. xxvii. 381. We observe blue streaks, from a few inches to several feet in length, upon the walls of the same crevasse.
1876. O. C. Stone, in Jrnl. R. Geogr. Soc., XLVI. 57. They paint the face with streaks by means of a rose-coloured lime.
1890. Hardwicke’s Sci.-Gossip, XXVI. 265/2. The appearance of Jupiter is very different from that of Mars. On his surface we see grey … streaks or belts.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 595. Papules rarely arise, but there are often red scaly streaks on the face.
1911. Webster, s.v., Bacon with a streak of lean and a streak of fat.
b. A line of color, less firm and regular than a stripe, occurring as a distinctive mark on the coat of an animal, the plumage of a bird, the body or wings of an insect. Also fig.
α. 1567. Maplet, Gr. Forest, 70. [This aspis] is of white colour,… beset with black spots or strikes.
1626. Maldon (Essex) Docum. Bundle 208 No. 9. A tall darkeish graye gelding,… haveing a white stricke on one side.
β. 1641. J. Jackson, True Evang. T., I. 74. Too much of the Leopard … in our spots, and streaks, with sinfull customes, and habits.
1687. A. Lovell, trans. Thevenot’s Trav., I. 237. This Ass had a black List down the back, and the rest of its Body was all begirt with white and Tawny streaks.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 150. The better Brood [of bees] … Are mark’d with Royal streaks of shining hue.
1815. Stephens, in Shaw’s Gen. Zool., IX. I. 29. There is a short streak at the angles of the mouth, beneath the eye, sometimes whitish, sometimes yellow.
1882–4. Yarrell’s Brit. Birds (ed. 4), III. 561. The black loral streak … is assumed the second year.
c. In the names of moths, etc.
1704. Petiver, Gazophyl., II. Tab. xi. Papilio minor fuscus, duplici linea inferne præditus, The brown double Streak.
1775. M. Harris, Engl. Lepidoptera, 45. Phalæna…. Streak.
1815. Burrow, Elem. Conchol., 206. Patella Mammillaris. Black Hair Streak Limpet.
1832. J. Rennie, Butterfly & Moths.
1872. J. G. Wood, Insects at Home, 461. The Moth which is appropriately termed the Streak (Chesias spartiata).
d. Min. The line of colored powder produced by scratching a mineral or fossil, or the mark made by rubbing it on a harder surface.
1794. Kirwan, Elem. Min., I. 26. External characters. These are colour, shape, lustre,… colour of streak &c. Ibid. (1796), (ed. 2), I. 183. Its streak somewhat glossy.
1805. Weaver, trans. Werner’s Ext. Char. Fossils, 190. Solid fossils … when scraped … yield a powder, presenting the same, or a different colour from that of the fossil; and also the same or a more or less different lustre. This is called the streak.
1849. J. Nicol, Man. Min., 487. Kobellite…. Colour blackish lead-grey to steel-grey; streak black.
1888. Crookes, Mitchell’s Pract. Assaying (ed. 6), 239. Cinnabar has both a red colour and a red streak.
e. Biol. etc. A linear mark, stria. Also, a narrow tract in a tissue.
Primitive streak: see PRIMITIVE a. 8.
1837. P. Keith, Bot. Lex., 34. If the streak of the parenchyma is to be regarded as a good evidence. But this streak is not discernible in all stems.
1856. Henslow, Bot. Terms, Streak, a straight line formed by a vein, by colour, by indentation, &c. Ibid., Stria (a groove or furrow), a streak.
1859. Semple, Diphtheria, 20. We often see a long, narrow streak, of a dark red colour, which extends into the pharynx.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VII. 716. The degeneration may be more intense in certain streaks; as in the posterior root-zones, or in Goll’s tracts.
f. Glass-making. (See quot. 1807.)
1807. T. Thomson, Chem. (ed. 3), II. 512. Streaks. These are waved lines, often visible in glass, which interrupt distinct vision.
1832. C. R. Porter, Porcelain & Gl., 197. Large plates,… to be perfect, require to be without streak or bubble.
g. Bacteriology. A light scratch made with the bacteria-covered point of a needle on the surface of the mass to be infected. Cf. streak-culture in 7.
1893. W. R. Dawson, trans. Schenk’s Man. Bacteriol., 57.
3. A faint line of light (esp. of the dawn) diversifying the darkness. Also fig.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., II. iii. 2. The gray ey’d morne smiles on the frowning night, Checkring the Easterne Cloudes with streaks of light. Ibid. (1605), Macb., III. iii. 5. The West yet glimmers with some streakes of Day.
1697. Dryden, Æneis, IX. 477. And see the scatter’d Streaks of dawning day.
1812–26. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, I. 450. When we look at a candle … with our eyes almost closed, streaks of light appear to dart upwards and downwards.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., II. III. vi. Darkness … with here and there some streak of faint lurid light.
1881. S. R. Macphail, Relig. House of Pluscardyn, xii. 114. The grey streaks of Reformation dawn speedily forced themselves upon public notice, especially through the scandal of many violent proceedings on the part of the royal Stewarts.
1885. ‘Mrs. Alexander,’ At Bay, v. The first faint streaks of daylight were stealing across the eastern sky.
b. A flash of lightning, etc.
1781. Cowper, Heroism, 18. While through the stygian veil that blots the day, In dazzling streaks, the vivid lightnings play.
1828. Carlyle, Misc., Burns (1840), I. 352. Streaks of hell-fire quivering madly.
1847. Illustr. Lond. News, 10 July, 19/3. She saw a streak of lightning shoot in an oblique direction.
1863. Aytoun, Lays Scott. Cavaliers, Exec. Montrose, xiii. And the jagged streak of the levin-bolt Lit up the gloomy town.
c. slang. Streak of lightning, ? a glass of gin (cf. LIGHTNING 2). Like a streak, like streaks: with the swiftness of lightning.
1859. C. Mackay, Life & Liberty Amer., I. 169. ‘Ginsling.’ ‘brandy-smash,’ ‘a steak of lightning,’ [etc.].
1901. Daily Chron., 26 Sept., 6/2. Workman was running like a ‘streak,’ to use the local phrase.
1901. J. B. Connolly, in Scribner’s Mag., XXIX. 501/1. We worked like streaks.
4. A long irregular narrow strip of land, water, etc.; a line of color representing a distant object in a landscape.
The silver streak: the English Channel; see SILVER sb. 21 and cf. quot. 1870 below.
1727. Dyer, Grongar Hill, 118. See on the mountain’s southern side … How close and small the hedges lie! What streaks of meadows cross the eye!
1818. Keats, Lett., 20 July (1895), 173. The first glance was a streak of waters deep in the Bases of large black Mountains.
1841. Browning, Pippa Passes, I. Poems (1905), 167/2. Ah, the clear morning! I can see St. Mark’s: That black streak is the belfry.
1842. Tennyson, Œnone, 55. Far-up the solitary morning smote The streaks of virgin snow.
1865. W. G. Palgrave, Journ. Central & E. Arabia, II. 128. Though separated from it by a streak of desert.
1870. Gladstone, in Edin. Rev., Oct., 588. Happy England!… happy … in this, that the wise dispensation of Providence has cut her off, by that streak of silver sea,… partly from the dangers, absolutely from the temptations which attend upon the local neighbourhood of the Continental nations.
1872. Jenkinson, Guide Eng. Lakes (1879), 274. The white streak of water running down the face of the mountain is Sour Milk Gill.
1883. Morfill, Slavonic Lit., i. 6. There is also a thin streak of Little Russian population in the kingdom of Hungary, north of the Carpathians.
1907. J. London, Before Adam, viii. When we reached the edge of the forest he was no more than a streak in the distance.
5. a. The horizontal course of a stratum of coal (cf. STRETCH, STRIKE sbs.). b. A stratum or vein (of metal ore).
1672. G. Sinclair, Hydrostaticks (1683), 273. The Coal … hath its three principal dimensions,… Longitude, Latitude, and Profundity…. The Longitude is nothing else but what is termed by the Coal-hewers, the Streek.
1686. Plot, Staffordsh., iii. 129. According to the course of the row or streek of the coal.
1789. J. Williams, Min. Kingd., I. 334. The streeks or flat veins. Ibid., 339. By the word streek they mean stretch, or a vein between the strata which stretches or spreads in a horizontal position.
1872. Schele de Vere, Americanisms, 171. He hopes … to strike it very rich, as soon as he comes to the pay-streak, that is, the lode or vein which is to repay him for all his labors.
1904. S. E. White, Blazed Trail Stories, xii. Here a pocket, there a streak, yon a clear ten feet of low-grade ore.
6. An intermixture (of some contrasting or unexpected quality, esp. in a person or his character); an inherited strain. A streak of red: a strain of Red Indian blood.
1647. Cowley, Mistr., Wisdom, Poems (1905), 86. With your grave Rules from musty Morals brought: Through which some streaks too of Divinity ran.
1762. Ann. Reg., Charac., 32/2. Broad streaks of folly now and then appear through all the grave wisdom … of those mighty statesmen.
1856. Mrs. Stowe, Dred, I. ix. 121. Just act, now, as if you’d got a streak of something in you.
1865. Grote, Plato, II. xxiii. 158. There is … a streak of eccentricity in his character.
1885. W. D. Howells, Silas Lapham (1891), II. 175. He always did have that close streak in him.
1889. Spectator, 28 Dec., 914/1. The deep and unscrupulous craft which lay in streaks through all Cavour’s great character.
1890. J. Aitchison, Signa Christi, i. 23. The streak of immorality would have run through the whole history.
1908. W. Churchill, Mr. Crewe’s Career, vii. 84. I can’t understand Victoria. She really has influence with these country people…. Sometimes I think Victoria has a common streak in her.
1913. Play Pictorial, No. 134. 82. A woman even suspected of a ‘streak of red’ is scarcely within the pale.
b. A temporary run (of luck).
1882. Poker; how to play it, 94. The player in this seat should not come in … under a pair of court cards, unless he happens to be in a streak of good luck.
1900. A. Upward, Eben. Lobb, 114. He said he found luck did come in these queer streaks.
7. attrib. and Comb., as streak-like adj.; streak culture, a bacterial culture having the inoculating matter in streaks (cf. 2 g); streak fallowing (see quot.); streak-flowered a. Bot., striate; streak lightning, forked lightning; streak powder (see quot., cf. 2 d); streak stitch (see quot.); streak vein, ? = sense 5 b.
1893. W. R. Dawson, trans. Schenk’s Man. Bacteriol., 60. Blood serum … is principally adapted for surface or *streak cultures (Strichculturen).
1677. Plot, Oxfordsh., 243. There is a sort of tillage … which they call *streak-fallowing; the manner is, to plough one furrow and leave one.
1822. Hortus Anglicus, II. 186. S[isyrinchium] Striatum. *Streak flowered Sisyrinchium.
1916. Chamb. Jrnl., Aug., 560/1. It was *‘streak’ lightning that was observed.
1876. Clin. Soc. Trans., IX. 87. Small white *streak-like spots.
1857. Dana, Man. Min. (1862), 56. The color of a surface that has been rubbed or scratched … is called the streak, and the powder abraded, the *streak-powder.
1882. Caulfeild & Saward, Dict. Needlework, 464. In hand-made laces the veins of leaves or flowers are made with an open line, that is sometimes designated *Streak Stitch.
1789. J. Williams, Min. Kingd., I. 404. In Derbyshire … great attention is paid to all the *streek veins.
