Emily Dickinson Lexicon

STRIKE, v.t. [pret. struck; pp. struck and stricken, but struck is in the most common use. Strook is wholly obsolete. Sax. astrican, to strike, D. stryken, to strike, and to stroke, smooth, to anoint or rub over, to slide; G. streichen, to pass, move or ramble, to depart, to touch, to stroke, to glide or glance over, to lower or strike, as sails, to curry, (L. stringo, strigil,) to sweep together, to spread, as a plaster, to play on a violin, to card, as wool, to strike or whip, as with a rod; streich, strich, a stroke, stripe or lash, Eng. streak; Dan. streg, a stroke; stryger, to rub, to stroke, to strike, to trim, to iron or smooth, to strike, as sails, to whip, to play on a violin, to glide along, to plane; Sw. stryka, id. We see that strike, stroke and streak, and the L. stringo, whence strain, strict, stricture, &c., are all radically one word. Strong is of the same family. Hence we see the sense is to rub, to scrape; but it includes often the sense of thrusting. It is to touch or graze with a sweeping or stroke. Hence our sense of striking a measure of grain, and strike, strickle, and a stroke of the pencil in painting. Hence the use of stricken applied to age, worn with age, as in the L. strigo, the same word differently applied. Hence also we see the propriety of the use of stricture, applied to criticism. It seems to formed on the root of rake and stretch.]

1. To touch or hit with some force, either with the hand an instrument; to give a blow to, either with the open hand, hand, the fist, a stick, club or whip, or with a pointed instrument, or with a ball or an arrow discharged. An arrow struck the shield; a ball strikes a ship between wind and water. He at Philippi kept / His sword e'en like a dancer, while I struck / The lean and wrinkled Cassius. – Shak.
2. To dash; to throw with a quick motion. They shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts. – Exod. xii.
3. To stamp; to impress; to coin; as, to strike coin at the mint; to strike dollars or sovereigns; also, to print; as, to strike five hundred copies of a book.
4. To thrust in; to cause to enter or penetrate; as, a tree strikes its root deep.
5. To punish; to afflict; as smite is also used. To punish the just is not good, nor to strike princes for equity. – Prov. xvii.
6. To cause to sound; to notify by sound; as, the clock strikes twelve; the drums strike up a march. – Shak. Knolles.
7. In seamanship, to lower; to let down; as, to strike sail; to strike a flag or ensign; to strike a yard or a top-mast in a gale; [that is, to run or slip down.] – Mar. Dict.
8. To impress strongly; to affect sensibly with strong emotion; as, to strike the mind with surprise; to strike with wonder, alarm, dread or horror. Nice works of art strike and surprise us most on the first view. – Atterbury. They please as beauties, here as wonders strike. – Pope.
9. To make and ratify; as, to strike a bargain, L. fœdus ferire. This expression probably arose from the practice of the parties striking a victim when they concluded a bargain.
10. To produce by a sudden action. Waving wide her myrtle wand, / She strikes a universal peace through sea and land. – Milton.
11. To affect in some particular manner by a sudden impression or impulse; as, the plan proposed strikes me favorably; to strike one dead; to strike one blind; to strike one dumb. – Shak. Dryden.
12. To level a measure of grain, salt or the like, by scraping off with a straight instrument what is above the level of the top.
13. To lade into a cooler. – Edwards' W. Indies.
14. To be advanced or worn with age; used in the participle; as, he was stricken in years or age; well struck in years. – Shak.
15. To run on; to ground; as a ship. To strike up, to cause to sound; to begin to beat. Strike up the drums. – Shak. #2. To begin to sing or play; as, to straw up a tune. To strike off, to erase from an account; to deduct; as, to strike off the interest of a debt. #2. To impress; to print; as, to strike off a thousand copies of a book. #3. To separate by a blow or any sudden action; as, to strike off a man's head with a cimiter; to strike off what is superfluous or corrupt. To strike out, to produce by collision; to force out; as, to strike out sparks with steel. #2. To blot out; to efface; to erase. To methodize is as necessary as to strike out. – Pope. #3. To form something new by a quick effort; to devise; to invent; to contrive; as, to strike out a new plan of finance.