stroke
Meanings
noun
- An act of hitting; a blow, a hit.
- An act of striking with a weapon; a blow.
- A single movement with a tool; also, an impact of a tool on an object.
- The hitting of a bell or similar by the clapper or hammer of a clock; the sound thereof; the time when this occurs.
- An act of hitting or trying to hit a ball; also, the manner in which this is done.
- The action of hitting the ball with the bat; a shot.
- A single act of striking at the ball with a club; also, at matchplay, a shot deducted from a player's score at a hole as a result of a handicapping system.
- A point awarded to a player in case of interference or obstruction by the opponent.
- The hitting of a ball with a racket; also, the movement of the racket and arm that produces that impact.
- A movement similar to that of hitting.
- One of a series of beats or movements against a resisting medium, by means of which movement through or upon it is accomplished.
- The movement of an oar or paddle through water: either the cycle of movement as a whole, or the propelling phase (as opposed to the return); the manner in which such movements are made; a rowing style.
verb
- To draw the horizontal line across the upright part (of the letter t).
- Followed by out or through: to draw a line or lines through (text) to indicate that it is deleted; to cancel, to strike or strike out.
- Of a bell or clock: to chime or sound to indicate (the hour, the time, etc.).
- To mark (something) with lines or stripes; to stripe.
- To hit or kick (the ball) with a flowing or smooth motion; also, to score (a goal, a point, etc.) by doing so.
- Of a rower or a crew: to row at (a rate of a certain number of strokes (“movements of the oar through water”) per minute).
- To act as the stroke (“rower who is nearest the stern of the boat, the movement of whose oar sets the rowing rhythm for the other rowers”) of (a boat or its crew).
- To strike (the water) with one's arms and legs when swimming.
- To lengthen the stroke of (an engine) by installing a crankshaft with longer throws.
- To depict (something) with a paintbrush.
- Chiefly followed by out: to suffer loss of brain function when the blood supply to the brain is suddenly interrupted; to have a stroke (noun sense 4).
- To swim by making co-ordinated movements with the arms and legs.
verb
- To move one's hand or an object (such as a broom or brush) along (a surface) in one direction, touching it lightly; to caress.
- To masturbate.
- To bring (something) to a certain condition by stroking (sense 1).
- To give assurance to (someone) through encouragement.
- To influence (someone) by convincing or flattering them.
- To milk (a cow or other animal); especially, to squeeze the teat of (a cow, etc.) to extract the last bit of milk from the udder; to strap (dialectal), to strip.
- To give a finely fluted surface to (stone) by carving it with a tool.
- To sharpen (a knife or other cutting instrument) by honing or rubbing it against a surface.
- To soothe (someone); also, to flatter or indulge (someone).
noun
- An act of moving one's hand or an object along a surface in one direction, touching it lightly; a caress.
- A gesture of assurance given as encouragement; specifically (psychoanalysis) in transactional analysis: a (generally positive) reaction expressed to a person which fulfils their desires or needs.
- A flattering or friendly act, comment, etc., done or made to a person to influence them.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
The noun is derived from Middle English strok, stroke (“blow from a weapon, cut”), from Old English strāc, from Proto-West Germanic *straik, from Proto-Germanic *straikaz (“stroke”), from Proto-Indo-European *streyg- (“to rub, stroke; to shear; to strike”). Sense 3.6.2.2 (“the oblique, slash, or virgule (‘/’)”) is a contraction of oblique stroke, a variant of oblique which was originally used in telegraphy. The verb is derived from the noun. Cognates * German Streich (“stroke”) * Middle Low German strēk (“stroke, trick, prank”) * Scots strak, strake, straik (“blow, stroke”)
Synonyms
Derived words
Translations
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.