[f. STRIKE v. + -ER1.]
I. Designating a person.
† 1. One who ‘strikes’ or roams as a vagrant. Cf. G. landstreicher vagrant. Obs.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. X. 159. Lolleres lyuyng in sleuthe and ouer-londe strykers.
c. 1410. Lanterne of Liȝt, 54. Strong staff-beggers & strikars ouere þe lond.
† b. A footpad. Obs.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., II. i. 82. I am ioyned with no Foot-land-Rakers, no Long-staffe six-penny strikers.
1611. Second Maiden’s Tragedy, 960 (Malone Soc.). One that robbes the mynde twenty tymes worse then any hywaie striker.
2. A person (or animal) who strikes (in various senses of the vb.). a. gen.
1581. Sidney, Apol. Poetrie (Arb.), 50. Musick,… the most diuine striker of the sences.
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., I. 123. Quhen Nout [cattle] fechtis togither ane be strukne to deid, na man knaweng the stryker, the beist that is hommil amang thame Judge giltie of the slachtir.
c. 1616. in Sprott, Scotl. Liturgies Jas. VI. (1901), 18. That so blessing the hand of Thee the Striker, Thou that humblest, may in Thy own appointed time raise again.
1686. Blome, Gentl. Recr., II. 278/2. It is a Maxim [in Cock-fighting], That he that is a close sitter, is ever a narrow striker.
1742. Jarvis, 2nd Pt. Quix., II. x. II. 146. Don Quixote, seeing Sancho so evil intreated, made at the striker with his launce.
1810. Bentham, Packing (1821), 199. ‘Two Juries’ were struck: and ‘in striking them, the official striker’ was, ‘to a certain extent’ … influenced by this principle.
1876. Emerson, Lett. & Soc. Aims, vii. 178. Against which no blow can be struck but it recoils on the striker.
1890. Henty, Lee in Virginia, 30. Before the whip could again fall … Vincent … wrested it from the hands of the striker.
b. One addicted to striking; one who is ready to resort to blows. nonce-use.
1582. N. T. (Rhem.), Tit. i. 7. A Bishop must be … not giuen to wine, no striker [so 1611 and 1881; Wycl. smiter, other versions fighter; Vulg. percussorem, Gr. πλήκτην].
† c. Sc. One who coins (money). Obs.
1449. Sc. Acts Jas. II. (1814), II. 37/1. All falss strikaris of gold & siluer & of falss grotis & pennys. Ibid. (1451), 40/2. Al þe yrnis of þe kingis strikaris bathe of gold & siluer.
1678. Sir G. Mackenzie, Crim. Laws Scot., II. xii. § ii. (1699), 207. They should apprehend … the strikers of false Coyn.
† d. In indecent sense. Hence, a fornicator.
1593. Passionate Morrice, in Tell-trothes N. Y. Gift, etc. (1876), 80. He cannot see a wench out-start the bounds of modestie, but straight he hollowes the sight of a striker, thinking it vnpossible that if shee want maidenly behauiour, shee can haue womanly honestie.
1596. Nashe, Saffron-Walden, T 1. In some Countreys no woman is so honorable as she that hath to doo with most men, and can giue the lustiest striker oddes by 25. times in one night.
1635. Glapthorne, Lady Mother, IV. i. in Bullen, Old Pl., II. 169. These are immodest devills that make modest ladyes become strickers.
1665. Needham, Med. Medicinæ, 64. Which should be sad News to all the Strikers of both Sexes.
† e. A horse given to kicking. Obs.–0
1693. Ling. Rom. Dict., Eng.-Lat., A striker or striking horse, calcitro.
f. Coursing. A dog trained to ‘strike’ the hare.
1861. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, xiii. Ruin is the quickest striker we have ever bred.
3. In certain industries.
a. A maker or molder of bricks or tiles.
1585. Tyle-stricker [see TILE sb.1 6].
1610. in Engl. Hist. Rev. (1898), XIII. 524. A Brick Striker.
1703. Art’s Improv., I. 4. A Molder or Striker of Bricks with his Attendants, can strike about 9000 of Bricks in a Day.
b. One who ‘strikes’ fish with a spear or harpoon (also † striker-out). Also U.S. (see quot. 1891).
1697. Dampier, Voy., I. 39. We … kept our Moskito-men, or strikers out, who brought aboard some half-grown Tortoise.
1764. C. Biddle, Autobiog. (1883), 16. We touched at the Mosquito Shore, and hired one of the Indians they call a striker, that is, a man to supply the crew with fish, turtle, [etc.].
1827. O. W. Roberts, Voy. Centr. Amer., 47. The natives are excellent hunters and strikers of fish.
1891. Century Dict., Striker, In the menhaden-fishery (a) The man who manages the striker-boat. (b) A green hand who works at low wages while learning the business, but is one of the crew of a vessel.
c. Mining. (See quot.)
1824. Mander, Derbysh. Miner’s Gloss., 70. Striker, the man who lands the Kibble or Corf of Ore, &c. at the Shaft-top.
d. In metal-working, the assistant operator who wields the heavy sledge-hammer.
1831. J. Holland, Manuf. Metal, I. 140. By two hammermen, a maker and a striker, they [the bars for rolled spades] are drawn out on the anvil.
1886. Pall Mall Gaz., 15 July, 6/2. A blacksmith uses what influence he possesses over his striker, a bricklayer uses his over his labourer.
1887. Hall Caine, Deemster, xxx. 195. The smith was hooping a cartwheel, and his striker set down his sledge and tied up his leather apron to look on and listen.
e. One who ‘strikes’ corn, etc., off a measure.
1867. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Suppl., Striker,… the man whose business it is to strike off the superfluous quantity from the top of a measure.
4. In various games: The player who is to ‘strike’; occas. the player who has made a stroke. Also striker-out in Tennis, etc., the one who plays the ball when first served.
1699. E. S—cy, Country Gentl. Vade M., 55. (Tennis) Squire A. is a good Striker-out, but Squire B. is a better Backhand.
1744. J. Love, Cricket (1770), 5. Stiff Spectators quite inactive stand, Speechless, attending to the Striker’s Hand.
1773. in Waghorn’s Cricket Scores (1899), 95. Simmons standing so near the strikers, greatly intimidated the Hampshire gentlemen.
1866. ‘Capt. Crawley,’ Billiard Bk., iii. 18. In making your stroke, an instantaneous glance will be sufficient—a glance that rises from the Striker’s-ball to the Object-ball.
1874. Chadwick, Base Ball Man., 52. The striker at the bat is called the batsman or ‘striker’ until he has hit a fair ball.
1884. J. Marshall’s Tennis Cuts, 14. The Server may not take a bisque after a fault; but the Striker-out may do so.
5. A workman who is ‘on strike.’
1850. Athenæum, 7 Dec., 1282/3. A vast change must have come over the factory population ere a man possessing mill-property could dream of letting it out to strikers.
1865. in Docum. Hist. Amer. Industr. Soc. (1910), IX. 101. These two congresses might adopt the same rule respecting strikers, runaway apprentices, and trades’ unions.
6. U.S. a. Polit. slang. One who seeks to effect a strike. Cf. STRIKE sb. 13 and v. 75 e.
1883. Nation (N. Y.), 6 Sept., 200/1. If he can elect such a ticket … he will take the field after election as a ‘striker,’ and will offer his electoral votes to whichever candidate will give the highest ‘terms.’
1884. American, VIII. 99. Bracketing together the political ‘strikers and heelers’ with the commercial respectables.
b. Mil. An officer’s batman or servant.
1867. Custer, in Mrs. Custer, Tenting on Plains (1888), 529 (Thornton). The Dutchman and Englishmen and the rest of the strikers. Note, Striker was the name of a soldier servant.
c. A hired ruffian.
1859. Bartlett, Dict. Amer. (ed. 2), 457. Striker, a bruiser; a ruffian.
a. 1872. Country Merchant, 317 (Schele de Vere). He was one of the most accomplished strikers, or barkers, as they are called, in the employ of the hells.
II. A thing that strikes or is used for striking.
7. gen.
1644. Digby, Nat. Bodies, xii. (1645), 124. The missives … must be so heavy that the aire may not break their course; and yet so light, that they may be within the command of the stroke which giveth them motion; the striker must be dense, and in its best velocity.
1901. Alldridge, Sherbro, xxvi. 289. To these again are attached little rings, and as the hands work the strikers, these jingling irons make a pleasant tinkling sound.
1911. E. Beveridge, North Uist, x. 325. Although the writer was able to obtain an ornamented steel ‘striker’—for use with a flint…—the tinder-box seems quite unknown.
† 8. A farrier’s instrument (see quot.). Obs. (Cf. STRIKE v. 33 d.)
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 324/2. A Blooding stick or Striker … is a heavy piece of Wood, where with the Fleme is smitten or driven into the Horse Neck Vein, when he is Blooded.
9. a. = STRICKLE sb. 1 a. b. = STRICKLE sb. 1 b.
a. 1714. Budgell, trans. Theophrastus, xi. 38. He has a Measure of a particular make for the use of his Domesticks, which he piles up very high, and is so dextrous at the management of it that with one sweep of the Striker he brushes off half their Dinner.
1828. Carr, Craven Gloss.
b. 1693. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., 248. A Striker … is only a piece of Lath … with which they strike, or cut off the Morter at the britches of the Tiles.
1764. Croker, etc. Dict. Arts, s.v. Bricks, The striker, or tool with which the moulder strikes off the superfluous earth in making bricks.
1842. Gwilt, Encycl. Archit., § 1908. The striker, a piece of lath about 10 inches long, for separating and taking away the superfluous mortar at the feet of the tiles.
10. A clock or watch that strikes. (Chiefly with qualifying adj.)
1778. Barrington, in Archæologia, V. 426. Some of the watches used at this time seem to have been strikers.
1864. G. Musgrave, Ten Days Fr. Parsonage, I. viii. 229. A large cased eight-day clock, the loudest striker I ever heard.
1869. Mrs. H. Wood, Roland Yorke, Prol. i. The clock of the old grey church struck twelve. A loud striker at all times, it sounded strangely so in the stillness of the night.
11. A harpoon. (Simmonds, Dict. Trade, 1858.)
12. A steam-hammer designed as a substitute for the blacksmith’s ‘striker’ (see 3 d).
1869. C. Knight, Mechanician, 91. Striker is a name given … to substitutes and superseders of hammermen, such as air-hammers and steam-hammers, whether vertical or horizontal.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech.
13. The piece of mechanism in a gun, fuze, etc., that explodes the charge.
1824. Col. Hawker, Instr. Young Sportsm. (ed. 3), 74. The cock, or striker, should cover the nipple with a deep concave head.
1856. ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Sports, I. I. viii. 70/2. The striker explodes this tube, just as the flint set fire to the powder in the pan of the old flint-gun.
1882. J. H. Walsh, Sportsman’s Gun & Rifle, I. 263. Strikers. This necessary part of the hammerless gun is either of one piece with the tumbler,… or jointed to it,… or entirely detached.
14. That part of a bell, clock, etc., that strikes.
1872. Ellacombe, Ch. Bells Devon, Suppl. i. 196. The clapper or striker [of a bell].
1897. Westm. Gaz., 29 April, 10/2. The striker [of the clock] was prevented from working.
15. The automatic regulator of the striking of the pens of a ruling machine.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2001/2. s.v. Ruling-machine.
1888. Jacobi, Printers’ Vocab., Striker, the apparatus attached to a machine for ‘striking on,’ or putting it in motion.
1909. Daily Chron., 26 June, 8/5. Machine Ruler wanted for double striker.
16. A hardened mold upon which a softened steel block is struck to receive a concave impression.
1843. Holtzapffel, Turning, I. 232. A solid mould, core or striker, exactly a copy of the work to be produced, is made.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech.
17. A preparation for ‘striking’ or fixing a dye; a mordant.
1884. Health Exhib. Catal., 38. The colour is then made fast with what is known as a ‘striker,’ a chemical preparation suited to the colour.
III. 18. attrib. and Comb., as striker hand, -machine (sense 15); striker-boat U.S., in menhaden fishing = DRIVE-boat; striker-plate = striking plate (see STRIKING vbl. sb. 3).
1884. Knight, Dict. Mech., Suppl., Striker Plate.
1898. Daily Chron., 24 Sept., 10/6. Machine Ruler … wanted…; must be used to striker machines. Ibid. (1902), 28 Oct., 10/7. Machine Ruler.—Good striker hand.
