Forms: 4–6 strik, stryk, 4–7 stryke, 4– strike. [f. STRIKE v. (In senses 2–4 perh. a. MLG. derivatives of the same root: cf. STRICK sb.)
In early instances it is sometimes doubtful whether the word is this or STRICK sb. or STREAK sb., as the spelling strik, stryk, strick does not always indicate a short vowel, and conversely the spelling strike, stryke does not always imply that the vowel is long.]
† 1. A distance. Obs.
From the rhymes the word seems to be strike, not strick.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 1052. He dyde make for fens a dyk Aboute þe castel a gret stryk. Ibid., 1420. In-to þe se of Aufryke þey comen, & passed a gret stryke.
2. A bundle or hank of flax, hemp, etc.: = STRICK sb. 1. [Cf. Pg. estriga.]
c. 1386. Chaucer, Prol., 676. This Pardoner hadde heer as yelow as wex, But smooth it heeng as dooth a strike of flex.
1530. Palsgr., 277/2. Stryke of flaxe, poupee de filace.
1615. Markham, Eng. Housew., II. iii. 96. Then you shall say it [the hemp or flax] is brak’t enough, and then tearming that which you called a baite or bundle before, now a strike, you shall lay them together.
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric., 276. A Strike of Flax, so much as is Heckled at one handful.
1743. R. Maxwell, Sel. Trans. Soc. Improv. Agric., 336. When the Flax is well scutched, take a moderate Handful of it, fold it in the Middle, plet it like a Rope, but loosely…. After you have beat it for some time, open the Strike.
1794. A. Young, Agric. Suffolk, 49. The buyer heckles it [sc. hemp]…; he makes it into two or three sorts: long strike, short strike, and pull tow.
b. ? A handful of corn-stalks.
1817. Coleridge, Three Graves, III. ii. On the hedge-elms in the narrow lane Still swung the strikes [so Sibyll. Leaves; earlier version spikes] of corn.
3. a. = STRICKLE sb. 1, STRICK sb. 3.
c. 1425. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 664/14. Hoc ostorium, stryke.
1474. Stat. Winch., in Coventry Leet Bk., 396. viij Buysshelles makith a Quarter, striken with a Rasid stryke, and neyther hepe nor Cantell.
1538. Elyot, Dict., Hostorium, the staffe wherwith all measures be made euen, a stryke.
1557. Cal. Anc. Rec. Dublin (1889), 467. In every myll ther shalbe a toll dysshe … cheyned with a cheyne of iron, and a stryke of iron fast to the cheyne.
1639. Horn & Robotham, Gate Lang. Unlocked, xxxii. § 400. Bread-corne … being measured is strick’d even with a strike (strickle).
1758. in Rep. Comm. Ho. Commons, II. 431. (Weights & Meas.) The Bushel is striked, and to strike it they use a round circular Strike, which is of the same Diameter from one End to the other.
1844. H. Stephens, Bk. Farm, II. 280. In connection with the bushel is the strike for sweeping off the superfluous corn above the edge of the bushel.
1859. Bartlett, Dict. Amer. (ed. 2), 457.
b. An instrument, usually a rod or narrow board, used in various trades (e.g., brickmaking, casting, plumbing, gardening) for levelling a surface by striking off the superfluous material.
1683. J. Houghton, Collect. Lett. Improv. Husb., II. vi. 183. We also have upon the Table … a little Trough,… and in it a Strike to run over the Mould, to make the Bricks smooth: this Strike is usually made of Firr, nine inches long, an inch and a half broad, and half inch thick.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 631. A kind of rake, called a strike, which consists of a board about 5 inches broad.
1839. Penny Cycl., XIII. 372/1. An instrument called a strike is … provided to regulate the thickness of the sheet [of lead], and to spread the melted metal evenly over the table.
1840. Florist’s Jrnl. (1846), I. 198. A strike, which is made of wood, about two feet longer than the width of the bed.
1850. E. Dobson, Bricks & Tiles, I. 27. After which the superfluous clay is striken with a strike. Ibid., 71. The strike is not used at Nottingham.
1885. P. J. Davies, Pract. Plumbing, I. 28. The Strike … is rather an important tool, made as follows.
c. Measurement by the use of the ‘strike’ (sense 3 a): Struck or levelled, as opposed to heaped measure. Now rare or Obs.
1674. Jeake, Arith. (1696), 70. Usage in some places hath continued Measure by heap, although some Statutes order it by Strike.
1821. Acc. Peculations Coal Trade, 5. The Newcastle chaldron … by measure is 24 bolls strike…. The London chaldron is 36 bushels heaped.
4. A denomination of dry measure, used in various parts of England (but not officially recognized since the 16th c.); usually identical with the bushel, but in some districts equal to a half-bushel, and in others to two or four bushels. Also, the cylindrical wooden measuring vessel containing this quantity. Cf. STROKE sb. 22.
First recorded in AF. form estrike. The word is believed to have been originally used for a measure ‘struck’ or levelled with a strickle, not heaped.
[1284. MS. Acc. Exch. K. R. Bd. 97 No. 3 m. 11. In .vij. estrikes et .j. pecke auene.
1350–1. Rolls of Parlt., II. 230/2. Et q les Estrikes soient auxi bien enseales, come Bussels & autres Mesures.]
13[?]. Propr. Sanct. (Vernon MS.), in Archiv Stud. neu. Spr., LXXXI. 318/16. Men takeþ not of a lanterne þe liht And put vndur a strik vnriht Bote on a Candelstikke on hiȝ.
c. 1440. Pallad. on Husb., XI. 104. Salt let screue On hem, iij stryk on x strike [L. per decem modios] of oliue.
1467. Coventry Leet Bk., 334. Also they have ordenyd that the wardens Make ij strikis, ij halfe strykis, ij hopes, & let the salters have hem with-owt eny money.
1523–34. Fitzherb., Husb., § 12. Two London busshelles of pease, the whyche is but two strykes in other places.
1540. Nottingham Rec., III. 378. A cordyng to the Kynges Standard, after viijt gallans to the stryke.
1598. Bp. Hall, Sat., IV. vi. 27. Altho he buy whole Haruests in the spring And foist in false strikes to the measuring.
1609. Holland, Amm. Marcell., Annot. d ij. A measure with us called a strike, or London bushell would have cost 4.s.
1636. Sir R. Baker, Cato Variegatus, 28. Hees no good Husbandman, that will mislike: To sowe a Pynte where he may reape a strike.
1680. W. Walker, Idiomat. Anglo-Lat., 452. He measures his money by strikes. Nummos modio metitur. Petr.
1681. in Reliquary (1862), III. 100. Paid for gathering 208 Strikes of acornes, 03 09 06.
1707. [E. Ward], Hudibras Rediv., VI. 11. In Shape most like That Measure which we call a Strike.
1759. R. Brown, Compl. Farmer, 57. A strike, which is a bushel measure fill’d only to the edges.
1811. P. Kelly, Univ. Cambist, I. 259. A Last contains … 40 Strikes or 80 Bushels.
1868. Peacock, Myrc, Notes 81. In the Isle of Axholme,… a bushel is not, as elsewhere, one-eighth of a quarter, but double that measure. The strike or half-bushel represents there the legal bushel of eight pecks.
† 5. The unit proportion of malt in ale or beer. Also (? erroneously) of the first strike = of the highest strength: said of ale. Obs. Cf. STRAIK sb.1 2.
1610. Beaum. & Fl., Scornf. Lady, V. iii. Thou miserable man, repent, and brew three strikes more in a hogshed.
1702. Floyer, Cold Bathing, iv. 129. We must use … more moderate vinose Liquors, Beer of three or four Strike at Meals.
1819. Scott, Ivanhoe, xl. Our cellarer shall have orders to deliver to thee a butt of sack,… and three hogsheads of ale of the first strike, yearly. Ibid. (1820), Monast., xviii. An hogshead of ale at Martlemas, of the double strike.
6. An act of striking.
a. An act of striking a blow; of a snake, the act of darting at its prey.
1587. W. Fowler, Wks. (S.T.S.), I. 69. Sche suddenlye hir visage did from his [sc. Cupid’s] strykes so hyde, that [etc.].
1638. Sir A. Johnston (Ld. Wariston), Diary (S.H.S.), 325. The Almighty … hes many arroues in his quyver to peirce the at the heart if the first stryk in thy flesch move the not.
1859. H. Kingsley, Geoffrey Hamlyn, xxviii. She [the dog] had drawn herself ahead, and made a bold strike at the kangaroo, but missed him.
1879. Atcherley, Trip Boërland, 50. This brute [a snake] … made a strike at my boot as I was in the very act of taking it off.
1902. ‘Michael Fairless,’ Roadmender, 6–7. With the snake there is the swift, silent strike, the tiny, tiny wound, then sleep and a forgetting.
fig. 1888. Stevenson, Black Arrow, III. iv. It had been determined … to make one bold strike that evening, and, by brute force, to set Joanna free.
b. The striking of a clock, or of the clapper of a bell.
1871. Ellacombe, Belfries & Ringers (ed. 3), 38. The way to cure a clapper of rearing, or doubling its strike, is to lengthen the flight.
1903. Beatrice Harraden, Kath. Frensham, 47. We go on adjusting our lives and emotions to the strike of the parish clock.
† c. Strike of day: daybreak. Obs. or spurious.
[If genuine, perh. referring to the striking of the hour. But possibly a mistake of Grose (followed by Dickens) for shrike of day (SCRIKE sb. 2). Cf. STREAK sb. 3.]
1790. Grose, Prov. Gloss. (ed. 2), Suppl., Strike of Day, break of day.
1854. Dickens, Hard T., II. iv. I could sen nommore if I was to speak till Strike o’ day.
7. Fishing. † a. ? A place where salmon are speared. Obs. rare–1.
a. 1828. Bewick, Mem. (1862), 222. I was frequently sent by my parents to purchase a salmon from the fishers of the ‘strike’ at Eltringham ford.
b. The jerk by which the angler secures a fish that is already hooked.
1840. J. Younger, River Angling (1860), 88. [This motion is wrongly named: it is] rather a retentive hold than a start, or a strike.
1892. Field, 19 March, 402/1. Once the salmon has gone down head foremost with the fly, there is no reason to delay the strike.
c. A large capture (of fish).
1887. Hall Caine, Deemster, x. No ‘strike’ was made.
1894. R. Leighton, Wreck Golden Fleece, 36. The best strike of herrins be always at the moon-risin’.
1905. Daily Chron., 3 Oct., 4/5. When there is a ‘strike,’ and the movement of the buoys that support the nets show that a shoal has become enmeshed [etc.].
8. Mining and Geol. The horizontal course of a stratum; direction with regard to the points of the compass. Cf. Cf. STREAK sb. 5, STRETCH sb. 9.
Prob., as stated in a footnote to the first passage quoted below, a recent adoption from German. The Ger. word is streichen, the inf. of the vb. corresponding to STRIKE v.
1829. A. Sedgwick & Murchison, in Trans. Geol. Soc., Ser. II. III. 337. The range or strike of this series is from E.N.E. to W.S.W.
1833. Lyell, Princ. Geol., III. 346. In Europe the strike of the beds is not always parallel to the direction of the chain.
1850. Ansted, Elem. Geol., Min., etc., 291. The direction of the bed is called, in Geological language, the strike, and the inclination, the dip.
1888. Teall, Brit. Petrogr., 448. Strike—The strike of a bed is the direction (expressed by reference to the points of the compass) of the line formed by the intersection of the plane of the bed with the plane of the horizon.
transf. 1883. Nature, 22 Feb., 395/2. The main strike of the auroræ is magnetic east-west.
9. A concerted cessation of work on the part of a body of workers, for the purpose of obtaining some concession from the employer or employers. Formerly sometimes more explicitly strike of work. Cf. STRIKE v. 24, 24 b. Phrase, on strike, also (U.S.) on a strike.
The sb., together with the related sense of the vb., has been adopted into several European langs.: G. streik, Du. strijk, Sw. strejk.
1810. Docum. Hist. Amer. Industrial Soc. (1910), III. 370. The Society, in November 1809, ordered a general strike. Ibid. (1815), IV. 42. It appeared there was a strike for higher wages.
1825. Edin. Rev., XLIII. 14. Combinations and strikes of work may be necessary … to bring things sooner to their proper level.
1830. Poor Man’s Guardian, 31 Dec., 8/1. It has been determined at a meeting of delegates, appointed by the spinners in the different parts of the country, that a general strike shall take place on Monday, the 27th instant, of all spinners who are receiving less than 4s. 2d. per 1000 hanks.
1850. Athenæum, 7 Dec., 1282/3. Three hundred men on strike have taken a mill!
1881. Chicago Times, 14 May. The employés of the Grand Trunk car shops are on a strike for an advance in wages.
1899. C. Plummer, Saxon Chron., II. 289. Simeon of Durham represents the enactment as causing a sort of clerical strike.
10. A last plowing before the sowing. local.
1823. E. Moor, Suffolk Words, Strike is also a mode of plowing. We call it back-striking.
1844. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., V. I. 6. First year making the fallow, three whole tilths, and one strike, at 8s., 1l. 8s. 0d.
11. An act of ‘striking oil’ (see STRIKE v. 67 d); a discovery of a rich vein of ore in mining. Also fig. a stroke of success.
1883. E. V. Smalley, in Century Mag., July, 331/1. The typical ‘wild-catter’ is a restless, speculative person, rich to-day and poor to-morrow, now making a lucky strike, and now sinking all his available means in a dry hole.
1895. Daily News, 13 Sept., 2/5. Langlaagte Estate Gold…. The supervising director writes that the strike at the sixth level is really grand.
1901. Munsey’s Mag., XXIV. 841. Mr. Grau made a strike with his first novelty, ‘La Bohème.’
12. U.S. In certain games. a. Ten-pins. The knocking down of all the pins with the first bowl.
1866. Lowell, Biglow P., Ser. II. Introd. To make a strike is to knock down all the pins with one ball, hence it has come to mean fortunate, successful.
1884. [see SPARE sb.1 4].
b. Base-ball. (a) An act of striking at the ball, characterized as a fair or foul strike (see quot. 1874); three ‘foul strikes’ cause the batsman to be put out. (b) A ‘foul strike,’ or any act or shortcoming on the batsman’s part which incurs the same penalty.
1874. Chadwick, Base Ball Man., 105. A fair strike. The batsman, when in the act of striking at the ball, must stand within the lines of his position…. A foul strike. Should the batsman, when in the act of striking at the ball, step outside the lines of his position, the umpire must call ‘foul strike.’
1891. N. Crane, Baseball, 76. Every ball that is not hit by the batsman must be a ‘strike’ or a ‘ball.’
1896. Knowles & Morton, Baseball, 103. Strike.—When the batsman tries and fails to hit a ball delivered to him by the pitcher, or refuses to strike at a fair ball.
13. U.S. Political slang. (See quots.)
1885. T. Roosevelt, in Century Mag., April, 824/2. When a member introduces a bill hostile to some moneyed interest, with the expectation of being paid to let the matter drop…. [This proceeding is] technically called a ‘strike.’ Ibid. (1888), in Bryce, Amer. Commw., II. xliv. II. 163, note.
1894. H. C. Merwin, in Atlantic Monthly, Feb., 247/1. A ‘strike’ is a measure brought forward simply for purposes of blackmail.
† 14. slang. ‘Twenty shillings’ (Grose, Dict. Vulgar T., ed. 2, 1788).
15. Printing. (See quots.)
1871. Amer. Encycl. Printing (ed. Ringvalt), 149. Drives are also sometimes called strikes, or the originals of matrices.
1888. [see DRIVE sb. 15].
1888. Jacobi, Printers’ Vocab., 134. Strikes, a term for type matrices struck from the original punches.
1900. H. Hart, Cent. Typogr., p. viii. Nowadays a type-founder … would be able to buy ‘strikes,’ which when justified would become matrices—the punches being left in the hands of the proprietor for the production of more ‘strikes.’
16. Sugar-making. See quot. 1864 (Cf. STRIKE v. 21 b.)
1847. W. J. Evans, Sugar-Planter’s Man., 152. The time required for taking off a strike containing fourteen moulds of fifty pounds each was two hours.
1864. Webster, Strike of sugar, (a) the act of emptying the teache, or last boiler, in which the cane-juice is exposed to heat, into the coolers; (b) the quantity of the sirup thus emptied at once.
1887. E. V. Smalley, in Century Mag., Nov., 114/1. When sufficiently boiled, the thick syrup is called the ‘masse cuite.’ The ‘strike’ is now done, air is admitted to the pan, and the contents are run off into the ‘mixer.’
17. Coining. ‘The whole amount struck at one time.’
1891. Century Dict.
18. Soap-making. The proper crystalline or mottled appearance of a soap, indicating complete saponification.
1884. A. Watt, Soap-making, 50. The leys are made from … black ash, the impurities in which give the mottled or marbled ‘strike’ for which this variety of soap is famed.
1885. W. L. Carpenter, Manuf. Soap & Candles, 12. The appearances known as ‘grain’ or ‘strike’ in a hard soap … are due to the crystalline character of soap.
† 19. ? A strip or band (of metal). Obs. rare–1.
Possibly the word may belong to STREAK sb., or may be misprinted. The passage (copied by Weever and some other authors) is the origin of the sense ‘stanchion or pale in a fence or gate’ given by some Dicts.
1603. Stow, Surv. (1908), I. 322. There were 9. Tombes of Alabaster and Marble, inuironed with strikes of Iron in the Quire, and one Tombe in the body of the Church, also coped with iron.
20. attrib. and Comb., as (sense 3 c) strike bushel, measure; (sense 8) strike-fault, -joint, vein; (sense 9) strike fund, leader; (sense 16) strike-healer, -pan. Also † strike-block [= Du. strijkblok] Carpentry (see quot. 1678); strike-breaker, a workman who consents to work for an employer whose workmen are on strike, thus contributing to the defeat of the strike; strike-furrow plough = strike plough below; † strike iron, ? malleable iron; strike pay, the periodical payment made by a trade-union for the support of men on strike; strike plough (see quot. 1856).
1678. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., iv. 66. The *Strike-Block … is a Plain shorter than the Joynter,… and is used for the shooting of a short Joynt.
1823. P. Nicholson, Pract. Build., 245. The Strike-Block Plane.
1905. Daily Chron., 4 May. The strikers made repeated attacks on the *‘strike-breakers.’
1862. Ansted, Channel Isl., IV. App. A. 567. It may be worth stating that the Guernsey heaped bushel is nearly equivalent to the imperial *strike bushel.
1879. Encycl. Brit., X. 303/1. Faults … are classified as dip-faults and *strike-faults.
1894. Tarr, Econ. Geol. U.S., 50. When the horizontal direction of a fault plane is in the direction of the dip of the strata, the fault is a dip fault; when at right angles to this, a strike fault.
1906. Daily Chron., 17 May, 4/7. The earliest mention of a *strike fund occurred in the strike of the Parisian stocking weavers in 1724.
1846. Keightley, Notes Virg., Terms Husb. 353. When the plough was prepared for seed-sowing, the aures were put to it, so that it then resembled our *strike-furrow plough.
1903. Naranja Amarga, in Longman’s Mag., Nov., 76. After repeated skimming and filtration, the juice is ready for the strike-pans, whence it is discharged by valves into the *strike-heaters—double-lined cauldrons supplied with steam enough to keep the sugar hot until crystallisation is reached.
1814. Sporting Mag., XLIII. 269. A large quantity of these shears made out of *strike iron.
1879. Encycl. Brit., X. 297/1. The former set is known as dip-joints,… the latter is termed *strike-joints.
1766. Museum Rust., VI. 264. More frequently a fraud, in the construction of measures of that kind, where heap, and not *strike measure, is the custom.
1903. *Strike-pan: see strike-heater.
a. 1878. in G. Howell, Confl. Capital & Labour, vii. 344. See that none of the men who receive what is called *‘strike pay’ are also receiving wages from the employer.
1891. Spectator, 13 June, 821/2. Whether these conditions are satisfied, it is not for us to say, though … the scale of strike-pay does not suggest an overflowing exchequer.
1789. Trans. Soc. Arts, I. 123. I took a common *strike plough.
1856. Morton, Cycl. Agric., II. 726/1. Strike-plough (Sussex), double-mould board plough.
1877. Raymond, Statist. Mines & Mining, 241. The *strike-vein is north and south.
