Emily Dickinson Lexicon

THRUST, n.

1. A violent push or driving, as with a pointed weapon, or with the hand or foot, or with any instrument; a word much used in fencing. Polites Pyrrhus with his lance pursues, / And often reaches, and his thrusts renews. Dryden.
2. Attack; assault. There is one thrust at your pure, pretended mechanism. More. Note. Push and shove do not exactly express the sense of thrust. The two former imply the application of force by one body already in contact with the body to be impelled. Thrust on the contrary, often implies the impulse or application of force by a moving body, a body in motion before it reaches the body to be impelled. This distinction does not extend to every case.