[f. STRIKE v.1 + -ING2.] That strikes.
1. gen.
c. 1611. Chapman, Iliad, XV. 654. Not a shaft, nor farre-of striking dart, Was vsde through all.
1676. Mace, Musicks Mon., 109. When you would perform This Grace, it is but to strike your Letter,… with one of your fingers, and immediately clap on your next striking Finger, upon the String which you struck.
1875. A. J. Ellis, trans. Helmholtz’ Sensat. Tone, I. v. 144. Formerly, striking vibrators or reeds were employed, which on each oscillation struck against their frame.
† b. Of a horse: Addicted to kicking. Obs.
1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., 257. The decoction helps striking Horses.
2. Of a clock or watch: a. Constructed so as to be capable of striking.
[1611. Florio, Horologio, any kind of clock, horologe, or striking-houre instrument.]
1625. in Rymer Fœdera, XVIII. 238/1. A high Salte of Goulde … with a striking Clocke in the Cover.
1659. Torriano, Horologiografia, a description of striking-clocks or horologes.
1665. Hooke, Microgr., 134. I have heard of a striking Watch so small, that it serv’d for a Pendant in a Ladies ear.
1862. Catal. Internat. Exhib. Brit., II. No. 3316. Eight-day turret striking clock, with four faces.
1873. Nelthropp, Watch-work, 87. A striking watch, by Marwick, of London. A.D. 1680.
b. That is in the act of striking.
1732. Fielding, Covent-Gard. Trag., II. vii. Twice and once I ’ve told the striking Clock’s increasing Sound, And yet unkind Stormandra stays away.
1905. R. Bagot, Passport, xi. 100. At length, however, a striking clock had roused Monsieur d’Antin.
3. That strikes the attention of an observer; producing a vivid impression on the mind; telling, impressive, unusually remarkable.
Prob. imitated from the similar use of F. frappant.
1752. Sir H. Beaumont, Crito, 7. Tho’ Colour be the lowest of all the constituent Parts of Beauty, yet is it vulgarly the most striking, and the most observed.
1755. Johnson, Striking, affecting, surprising. Ibid. (1759), Rasselas, x. Or whether,… the first writers took possession of the most striking objects for description.
1765. Museum Rust., IV. 99. This gentleman … has written the following very striking passage.
1788. New Lond. Mag., March, 142. Account of Mr. Alderman Bell. Embellished with a striking Likeness.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, xix. The principal street was … of an architecture rather striking than correct in point of taste.
1820. Q. Mus. Mag., II. 19. The Fugata itself forms a striking contrast with the succeeding movement by LEAL and REGO.
1858. J. Blackwood, in Mrs. G. Porter, Ann. Publishing Ho. (1898), III. 47. The story is a very striking one, and I cannot recollect anything at all of the same kind.
1859. Jephson, Brittany, viii. 114. The dress of the peasants is striking.
Comb. 1855. D. Costello, Stories fr. Screen, 116. Alfred Washball was one of the most striking-looking … members of the profession.
1894. Conan Doyle, Mem. Sherlock Holmes, 218. She was a striking-looking woman.
4. Naut. Of a mast: Capable of being struck or lowered.
1677. Lond. Gaz., No. 1192/4. The Dolphin of Ostend,… a striking Top-mast, a square Stern, and an open Vessel.
1861. Smiles, Engineers, II. 270. Coasters and even colliers, with striking masts, might then be able to navigate the whole extent of the City westward.
5. Of a workman, etc.: That is on strike.
1894. Westm. Gaz., 11 June, 3/2. Presently some men come in, with … the badge of the striking cabby … pinned on their coats.
1898. Hamblen, Gen. Manager’s Story, xiv. 229. No striking employee would be allowed to trespass on the company’s property during the continuance of the strike.
Hence Strikingness.
1818. Todd.
1839. Fraser’s Mag., XX. 701. If strikingness of character be at all an object worth attending to.
1889. Spectator, 28 Dec. Oratorical power, be it eloquence, as with Mr. Gladstone, or strikingness of phrase, as with Lord Beaconsfield.
