A Dictionary of the English Language

strike; but it has in the antiquated phrase stricken (that is, advanced in years) a meaning not borrowed from strike.

The cunningest mariners were so conquered by the storm, as they thought it best with stricken sails to yield to be governed by it. Sidney.

That shall I shew, as sure as hound The stricken deer doth challenge by the bleeding wound. Spenser. Abraham and Sarah were old, and well stricken in age. Genesis.

With blindness were these stricken. Wisdom. Parker and Vaughan, having had a controversy touching certain arms, were appointed to run some courses, when Parker was stricken into the mouth at the first course.

Bacon.

Though the earl of Ulster was of greater power than any other subject in Ireland, yet was he so far stricken in years, as that he was unable to manage the martial affairs.

Davies.

STRICKLE, or Strickless, or Stritchel. n.s. That which strikes the corn, to level it with the bushel.

Ainsworth.

In the discharge of thy place, set before thee the best examples; and, after a time, set before thee thine own, and examine thyself strictly whether thou didst not best at first. Baon.

God may with the greatest justice strictly require endeavours from us, and, without any inconsistency with his goodness, inflict penalties on those who are wanting. Rogers.

A weak prince again disposed the people to new attempts, which it was the clergy's duty to endeavour to prevent, if some of them had not proceeded upon a topick that, strictly followed, would enslave all mankind. Swift.

3. Closely tightly; with tenseness. STRICTNESS.n.s. [from strict.] 1. Exactness; rigorous accuracy; nice re gularity.

I could not grant too much, or distrust too ittle, to men that pretended singular piety and religious strictness. King Charles.

Such of them as cannot be concealed connive at, though in the strictness of your judgment you cannot pardon. Dryden.

Who were made privy to the secrets of Heaven, but such as performed his revealed will at an higher rate of strictness than the rest? South. Eusebius, who is not in strictness to be reckoned with the Ante-Nicenes. Waterland. Though in strictness our Saviour might have pleaded exemption from the Jewish tribute, he exerted his divine power in a miracle to pay it. Rogers.

2. Severity; rigour.

These commissioners proceeded with such strictness and severity as did much obscure the king's mercy. Bacon.

3. Closeness; tightness; not laxity. STRICTURE. n. s. [from strictura, Lat. a spark.]

1. A stroke; a touch.

The God of nature implanted in their vegetable natures certain passive strictures, or signztures of that wisdom which hath made and ordered all things with the highest reason. Hale. 2. Contraction; closure by contraction. As long as there is thirst, with a free passage by urine, and stricture of the vessels, so long is water safely taken. Arbuthnot.

3. A slight touch upon a subject; not a

set discourse.

STRIFE. n. 5. [from strive.] 1. Contention; contest; discord; war; lawsuit.

I and my people were at great strife with the children of Ammon.

Judges.

Some preach Christ even of envy and strife, and some of good-will. Philippians.

He is proud, knowing nothing; but doating about questions and strife of words. 1 Timothy. These acts of hateful strife, hateful to all, How hast thou disturb'd heav'n's blessed peace! Milton.

These vows, thus granted, rais'd a strife above Betwixt the god of war and queen of love: She, granting first, had right of time to plead; But he had granted too, and would recede.

Dryden. 'Tis this that shakes our country with alarms, And gives up Rome a prey to Roman arms, Produces fraud, and cruelty, and strife. Addison. Inheriting no strife, Nor marrying discord in a noble wife. 2. Contest of emulation.

Pope.

Thus gods contended, noble strife! Who most should ease the wants of life. Congr. By wise governing, it may be so ordered, that both sides shall be at strife, not which shall flatter most, but which shall do the prince and the publick the most honest and the most faithful service. Davenant.

3. Opposition; contrariety; contrast. Artificial strife

Lives in those touches, livelier than life. Shaks. 4. Natural contrariety: as, the strife of acid and alkali.

STRIFEFUL. adj. [strife and full.] Contentious; discordant.

The ape was strifeful and ambitious, And the fox guileful and most covetous. Spens. I know not what new creation may creep forth from the strifeful heap of things, into which, as into a second chaos, we are fallen. Dr. Maine.

STRIGMENT. n. s. [strigmentum, from stringo, Latin, to scrape.) Scraping;

recrement.

Many, besides the strigments and sudorous adhesions from men's hands, acknowledge that nothing proceedeth from gold in its usual decoction.

Brorun.

To STRIKE. v.a. preterit struck or strook; part. pass. struck, strucken, stricken, or strook. [asznican, Sax. streichen, Germ. adstrykia, Islandick; stricker, Danish.] 1. To act upon by a blow; to hit with a blow.

He at Philippi kept His sword e'en like a dancer, while I struck The lean and wrinkled Cassius. Shakspeare. We will deliver you the cause, Why I, that did love Cæsar when I struck him, Proceeded thus. Shakspeare.

I must

But wail his fall, whom I myself struck down. Shakspeare.

Then on the crowd he cast a furious look, And wither'd all their strength before he strook.

2. To punish; to afflict.

Dryden.

Nice works of art strike and surprise us most upon the first view; but the better we are acquainted with them, the less we wonder.

trate;

Atterbury. Court virtues bear, like gems, the highest rate, Born where heav'n's influence scarce can peneIn life's low vale, the soil the virtues like, They please as beauties, here as wonders strike. Pope.

8. [fœdus ferire.] To make a bargain.

Sign but his peace, he vows he'll ne'er again The sacred names of fops and beaus profane; Strike up the bargain quickly; for I swear, As times go now, he offers very fair. I come to offer peace; to reconcile Past enmities; to strike perpetual leagues With Vanoc.

Dryden,

A. Philips.

9. To produce by a sudden action. The court paved striketh up a great heat in summer, and much cold in winter.

Bacon.

Waving wide her myrtle wand, She strikes an universal peace thro' sea and land.

Milton.

Then do not strike him dead with a denial, But hold him up in life.

Addison.

11. To cause to sound by blows: with up only emphatical.

Strike up the drums, and let the tongue of war Plead for our int'rest, and our being here. Sbaks. 12. To forge; to mint.

Though they the lines on golden anvils beat, It looks as if they struck them at a heat. Tate. Some very rare coins, struck of a pound weight, of gold and silver, Constantine sent to Chilperick. 13. It is used in the participle, I know not well how, for advanced in years. The king

Arbuthnot.

Is wise and virtuous, and his noble queen Well struck in years; fair, and not jealous. Shak. 14. TO STRIKE off. To erase from a reckoning or account.

Deliver Helen, and all damage else

Shall be struck off.

Sbakspeare.

Ihave this while with leaden thoughtsbeen prest; But I shall in a more convenient time Strike off this score of absence. Shakspeare. When any wilful sin stands charged on our account, it will not be struck off till we forsake and turn away from it.

Kettleworth.

Ask men's opinions: Scoto now shall tell How trade increases, and the world goes well: Strike off his pension by the setting sun, And Britain, if not Europe, is undone. 15. To STRIKE off. To separate by a blow, or any sudden action.

Pope.

Germany had stricken off that which appeared corrupt in the doctrine of the church of Rome; but seemed nevertheless in discipline still to retain therewith great conformity." They followed so fast that they overtook him, and without further delay struck off his head.

head.

Hooker.

Knolles.

He was taken prisoner by Surinas, lieutenantgeneral for the king of Parthia, who stroke of his Hakewill. A mass of water would be struck off and separate from the rest, and tossed through the air like a flying river.

Burnet.

16. TO STRIKE out. To produce by collision.

My thoughtless youth was wing'd with vain desires; My manhood, long misled by wand'ring fires, Follow'd false lights; and, when their glimpse

was gone,

My pride struck out new sparkles of her own. Dryden.

17. TO STRIKE out. To blot; to efface. By expurgatory animadversions, we might strike out great numbers of hidden qualities; and, having once a conceded list, with more safery attempt their reasons. Brozen.

To methodize is as necessary as to strike out.
Pope.
To bring to light.
To form at once by

18. To STRIKE out.
19. To STRIKE out.
a quick effort.

Whether thy hand strike out some free design, Where life awakes and dawns at ev'ry line; Or blend in beauteous tints the colour'd mass, And from the canvass call the mimick face.

Whilst any trump did sound, or druma struck up, His sword did ne'er leave striking in the field. Shakspeare.

8. To be dashed; to be stranded.

The admiral galley, wherein the emperor was, struck upon a sand, and there stuck fast. Knolles. 9. To pass with a quick or strong effect. Now and then a glittering beam of wit or passion strikes through the obscurity of the poem: any of these effect a present liking, but not a lasting admiration.

Dryden. 10. To pay homage, as by lowering the sail.

We see the wind sit sore upon our sails; And yet we strike not, but securely perish. Sbakspeare.

I'd rather chop this hand off at a blow, And with the other fling it at thy face, Than bear so low a sail, to strike to thee. Shaks.

The interest of our kingdom is ready to strike to that of your poorest fishing towns: it is hard you will not accept our services. Swift. 11. To be put by some sudden act or motion into any state; to break forth.

It struck on a sudden into such reputation,
that it scorns any longer to scuik, but owns it-
self publickly.
Government of the Tongue.

12. To STRIKE in with. To conform ;
to suit itself to; to join with at once.

Those who, by the prerogative of their age, should frown youth into sobriety, imitate and strike in with them, and are really vitious that they may be thought young.

South.

They catch at every shadow of relief, strike in at a venture with the next companion, and, so the dead commodity be taken off, care not who be the chapman.

Norris.

The cares or pleasures of the world strike in with every thought. Addison.

He immediately struck in with them; but described this march to the temple with so much horrour, that he shivered every joint. Addison. 13. TO STRIKE out. To spread or rove; to make a sudden excursion.

In this plain was the last general rendezvous of mankind; and from thence they were broken into companies, and dispersed; the several successive generations, like the waves of the sea, over-reaching one another, and striking out farther and farther upon the land.

Burnet.

When a great man strikes out into a sudden irregularity, he needs not question the respect of

a retinue.

Collier.

STRIKE. n. 5. A bushel; a dry measure of capacity; four pecks.

Wing, cartnave, and bushel, peck, strike, ready at hand.

STRIKEBLOCK. n. 5.

Tusser.

The wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrows upon the string. Th' impetuous arrow whizzes on the wing, Sounds the tough horn, and twangs the quiv'ring 9. Any concatenation or series: as, a Pope. string of propositions.

string.

10. To have tavo STRINGS to the Bow.
To have two views or two expedients;
to have double advantage, or double
security.

No lover has that pow'r
T' enforce a desperate amour,
As he that has two strings to 's bow,

And burns for love and money too. A plane shorter

than the jointer, having its sole made exactly flat and straight, and is used for the shooting of a short joint. Moxon. STRIKER.n.s. [from strike.] Person or thing that strikes.

A bishop then must be blameless, not given to wine, no striker.

He thought with his staff to have struck the
1 Timothy.

striker.
The striker must be dense, and in its best ve-
Sandys.

locity.

STRIKING. part. adj. [from strike.] fecting; surprising.

Af-
Digby.

Hudibras.

STRING. v. a. preterit strung; part. pass. strung. [from the noun.] 1. To furnish with strings.

Has not wise nature strung the legs and feet With firmest nerves, design'd to walk the street? Gay.

2. To put a stringed instrument in tune. Here the muse so oft her harp has strung, That not a mountain rears its head unsung. Addis. 3. To file on a string.

Men of great learning or genius are too full to be exact; and therefore chuse to throw down their pearls in heaps before the reader, rather than be at the pains of stringing them. Spectator.

STRING. n. 5. [sering, Saxon; streng, 4. To make tense.

German and Danish; stringhe, Dutch;

2. A riband.

Round Ormond's knee thou tiest the mystick
string,
That makes the knight compamon to the king.
Prior.

3. A thread on which any things are filed.
Their priests pray by their beads, having a
string with a hundred of nutshells upon it; and
the repeating of certain words with them they
account meritorious.
Stilling fleet.

4. Any set of things filed on a line.

I have caught two of these dark undermining vermin, and intend to make a string of them, in order to hang them up in one of my papers.

Spectator.

Divinely warbled voice
Answering the stringed noise,
As all their souls in blissful rapture took. Milt.
STRINGENT. adj. [stringens, Lat.] Bind-
ing; contracting.
STRINGHALT.n.s. [string and balt.]

Stringhalt is a sudden twitching and snatch-
ing up of the hinder leg of a horse much higher
than the other, or an involuntary or convulsive
motion of the muscles that extend or bend the
hough.
STRINGLESS. adj. [from string.] Having
Farrier's Dictionary.
no strings.

Nothing; all is said;
His tongue is now a stringless instrument;
Words, life, and all, old Lancaster hath spent.
Shakspeare.