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Stroke   Listen
noun
Stroke  n.  
1.
The act of striking; a blow; a hit; a knock; esp., a violent or hostile attack made with the arm or hand, or with an instrument or weapon. "His hand fetcheth a stroke with the ax to cut down the tree." "A fool's lips enter into contention and his mouth calleth for strokes." "He entered and won the whole kingdom of Naples without striking a stroke."
2.
The result of effect of a striking; injury or affliction; soreness. "In the day that Lord bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound."
3.
The striking of the clock to tell the hour. "Well, but what's o'clock? - Upon the stroke of ten. Well, let is strike."
4.
A gentle, caressing touch or movement upon something; a stroking.
5.
A mark or dash in writing or printing; a line; the touch of a pen or pencil; as, an up stroke; a firm stroke. "O, lasting as those colors may they shine, Free as thy stroke, yet faultless as thy line."
6.
Hence, by extension, an addition or amandment to a written composition; a touch; as, to give some finishing strokes to an essay.
7.
A sudden attack of disease; especially, a fatal attack; a severe disaster; any affliction or calamity, especially a sudden one; as, a stroke of apoplexy; the stroke of death. "At this one stroke the man looked dead in law."
8.
A throb or beat, as of the heart.
9.
One of a series of beats or movements against a resisting medium, by means of which movement through or upon it is accomplished; as, the stroke of a bird's wing in flying, or an oar in rowing, of a skater, swimmer, etc.; also: (Rowing)
(a)
The rate of succession of stroke; as, a quick stroke.
(b)
The oar nearest the stern of a boat, by which the other oars are guided; called also stroke oar.
(c)
The rower who pulls the stroke oar; the strokesman.
10.
A powerful or sudden effort by which something is done, produced, or accomplished; also, something done or accomplished by such an effort; as, a stroke of genius; a stroke of business; a master stroke of policy.
11.
(Mach.) The movement, in either direction, of the piston plunger, piston rod, crosshead, etc., as of a steam engine or a pump, in which these parts have a reciprocating motion; as, the forward stroke of a piston; also, the entire distance passed through, as by a piston, in such a movement; as, the piston is at half stroke. Note: The respective strokes are distinguished as up and down strokes, outward and inward strokes, forward and back strokes, the forward stroke in stationary steam engines being toward the crosshead, but in locomotives toward the front of the vehicle.
12.
Power; influence. (Obs.) "Where money beareth (hath) all the stroke." "He has a great stroke with the reader."
13.
Appetite. (Obs.)
To keep stroke, to make strokes in unison. "The oars where silver, Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Stroke" Quotes from Famous Books



... the first to start an eight-oared boat on the Cam, though some Trinity men had a four-oar on the river a short time before the Lady Margaret was started. Among the first members of the club were William Snow and Charles Merivale, afterwards Dean of Ely. Trench acted as stroke of the original first boat crew in the Lent Term of 1826. There were at first no regular races, but impromptu trials of speed with other crews frequently took place. In 1827 the University Boat Club was started, and regular bumping ...
— St. John's College, Cambridge • Robert Forsyth Scott

... throwing up the windows. In another minute the church clock boomed out the first stroke of twelve, and the room fell into a dead silence. With the last stroke the Captain rose, ...
— The Argosy - Vol. 51, No. 5, May, 1891 • Various

... could not bear the thought of her doing it. I resolved that if she permitted another man to teach her that dance it should be all over between us. It was a terrible thought to me, that of losing Jane, and it came like a very stroke upon my heart. I would think of her sweet little form, so compact and graceful; of her gray, calm eyes, so full of purity and mischief; of her fair oval face, almost pale, and wonder if I could live without the hope of her. I determined, ...
— When Knighthood Was in Flower • Charles Major

... chains firmly to the ground with iron stakes, so that he cannot get away from them. After two or three days the monster's strength will be so far exhausted that you will be able to come near him. Then you can put Solomon's ring upon your left thumb and give him the finishing stroke, but keep the ring on your third finger until you have come close to him, so that the monster cannot see you, else he might strike you dead with his long tail. But when all is done, take care you do not lose the ring, and that no one takes ...
— The Yellow Fairy Book • Various

... redstone or quartose grit, were often used, but in the making of all the weapons was required the exercise of infinite skill and patience. To make the flakes symmetrical demanded the nicest perception and judgment of power of stroke, for, with each flake gained, there resulted a new form to the surface of the stone. The object was always to secure a flake with a point, a strong middle ridge and sides as nearly edged as possible. And in the striking off of these flakes ...
— The Story of Ab - A Tale of the Time of the Cave Man • Stanley Waterloo

... ascent was more and more steep and very slow, as every step had to be cut. Their difficulties were increased, also, by a mist which gathered around them, and by the intense cold. Leuthold kept the party near the border of the ridge, because there the ice yielded more readily to the stroke of the axe; but it put their steadiness of nerve to the greatest test, by keeping the precipice constantly in view, except when hidden by the fog. Indeed, they could drive their alpenstocks through the overhanging ...
— Louis Agassiz: His Life and Correspondence • Louis Agassiz

... disking is usually done in the spring and while the frost is out for only a short distance below the surface. The amount of seed to sow need not be large, usually not more than 2 or 3 pounds per acre, especially when seed of other varieties is sown at the same time. One stroke of the harrow following will provide a sufficient covering ...
— Clovers and How to Grow Them • Thomas Shaw

... one or both going over into the river, but that he advance to the end of the bridge and fight upon the plain. You will tell him also that a blunted lance is sufficient for such an encounter, but that a hand-stroke or two with sword or mace may well be exchanged, if both riders should keep their saddles. A blast upon Raoul's horn shall be the ...
— Sir Nigel • Arthur Conan Doyle

... waving him back, "now I know why I would not give in to you when you wanted me to be Stroke's wife. I was afraid ...
— Sentimental Tommy - The Story of His Boyhood • J. M. Barrie

... toyish curs are named dancers, and those being of a mongrel sort also, are taught and exercised to dance in measure at the musical sound of an instrument, as at the just stroke of a drum, sweet accent of the citharne, and pleasant harmony of the harp, shewing many tricks by the gesture of their bodies: as to stand bolt upright, to lie flat on the ground, to turn round as a ring holding their tails ...
— Chronicle and Romance (The Harvard Classics Series) • Jean Froissart, Thomas Malory, Raphael Holinshed

... were 4 feet 10 inches thick, and the ends of the hull were rounded and alike. There were two rudders at each end, one on each hull, alongside the race. The eight paddle blades, each 14-1/2 feet by 3 feet, turned in either direction by stopping the engine piston at half-stroke and reversing the flow of steam. Rigged with two lateen sails and two jibs, the ship sailed either end first. The engine of 120 hp was in one hull and two boilers were in the other. Other sources, Marestier, and Colden in Proces-verbaux ...
— Fulton's "Steam Battery": Blockship and Catamaran • Howard I. Chapelle

... word he spoke when I sail'd, etc., Because a word he spoke when I sail'd, Because a word he spoke, I with a bucket broke His scull at one sad stroke, while I sail'd.[2] ...
— Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period - Illustrative Documents • Various

... calm morning in July 1706 when the boat put off for the first time to "the Rock," with the men and materials for commencing the lighthouse. Our friend John Potter sat at the helm. Opposite to him sat his testy friend, Isaac Dorkin, pulling the stroke oar. Mr Rudyerd and his two assistant engineers sat on either hand, conversing on the subject that filled the thoughts of all. It was a long hard pull, even on a calm day, but stout oars and strong arms soon carried them out to the rock. Being low water at the time, a ...
— The Story of the Rock • R.M. Ballantyne

... fully conscious of the delicate nature of such assertions, but it would be a magnificent stroke of policy if we could, without surrendering principle or a foot of ground, arouse the latent enmity ...
— The Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman, Complete • William T. Sherman

... in the world, we should almost say that the European is to the other races of mankind, what man is to the lower animals;—he makes them subservient to his use; and when he cannot subdue, he destroys them. Oppression has at one stroke deprived the descendants of the Africans of almost all the privileges of humanity. The negro of the United States has lost all remembrance of his country; the language which his forefathers spoke is never heard around him; he abjured their religion and forgot their customs when he ceased to belong ...
— American Institutions and Their Influence • Alexis de Tocqueville et al

... Swinburne's poetry or prose. I do not think either will live. Bigness of words, and fluency, and copiousness of verse cannot make up for the want of a sane and rational philosophy. Arnold's poems always have real and tangible subject matter. His "Dover Beach" is a great stroke of poetic genius. Let me return to Poe: what largeness of thought did he bring to his subjects? Emerson spoke of him as "the jingle man," and Poe, in turn, spoke of Emerson with undisguised contempt. Poe's picture indicates a neurotic person. There ...
— The Last Harvest • John Burroughs

... in my hand, moved its edge over my fingers, and reflected on the force that was required to make it reach my heart. I investigated the spot where it should enter, and strove to fortify myself with resolution to repeat the stroke a second or third time, if the first should prove insufficient. I was sensible that I might fail to inflict a mortal wound, but delighted to consider that the blood which would be made to flow would finally release me, and that meanwhile my pains would be ...
— Edgar Huntley • Charles Brockden Brown

... time that she had drawn near home the sun was going down. The heavy, many-chevroned church, now subdued by violet shadow except where its upper courses caught the western stroke of flame-colour, stood close to her grounds, as in many other parishes, though the village of which it formerly was the nucleus had become quite depopulated: its cottages had been demolished to enlarge the park, leaving the old building ...
— Two on a Tower • Thomas Hardy

... consciousness, I still lay upon my face, but my brain felt more capable of coping with the situation. I lay and reflected. Something had happened to me: was it a stroke of paralysis? I moved the muscles of my face: they were all right on both sides. I turned my head slightly first one way and then the other—no, I was not paralysed. I tried to raise myself, but found that some heavy weight upon the small of my back prevented ...
— Chatterbox, 1906 • Various

... drinking free, Require a process;—one! two! three! In truth the subtle web of thought Is like the weaver's fabric wrought: One treadle moves a thousand lines, Swift dart the shuttles to and fro, Unseen the threads together flow, A thousand knots one stroke combines. Then forward steps your sage to show, And prove to you, it must be so; The first being so, and so the second, The third and fourth deduc'd we see; And if there were no first and second, Nor third nor fourth would ever be. ...
— Faust Part 1 • Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

... Sussex Smugglers with an Intent that it should be seiz'd and expos'd to Publick View; which happen'd accordingly, and made its first Appearance at a Great Man's House on that Coast, whose Lady claim'd it as her peculiar Property. In it she first struck at Court what the learned in Dress call a bold Stroke; and was thereupon constituted General of the British Ladies during the War. Upon the Whole this Invention did not answer. The Ladies suffer'd a little the first Winter, but after that were so thoroughly ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 30, April, 1860 • Various

... breadth over all 74 feet, with a tonnage of 1975 gross tons. The engine was built by the W. & A. Fletcher Co. of New York. It is a standard American beam engine, with a cylinder 75 inches in diameter and 12 feet stroke of piston, and develops 3,850 horse power. Steam steering gear is used. One of the most admirable features of this queen of river steamers is her "feathering" wheels, the use of which not only adds materially ...
— The Hudson - Three Centuries of History, Romance and Invention • Wallace Bruce

... touch was a stroke of diplomacy. The suggestion that Harris should pay part of his expenses swept away Riles' bad humour, and he agreed to go on the date originally planned, and get what he called "a bede on the easy money," while Harris completed his arrangements ...
— The Homesteaders - A Novel of the Canadian West • Robert J. C. Stead

... kind, I know who it is; tell him to wait. Everybody in arms! Vautrin must then vanish; I will be the Baron de Vieux-Chene. Speak in a German account, fool him well, until I can play the master stroke. (Exit.) ...
— Vautrin • Honore de Balzac

... know," said the young girl presently, while a faint color went wandering over her fair face, "that they are doing a marvellous stroke of business at Garafield's, even if the times are bad? Mrs. Garafield was down to tea a few evenings since, and she was greatly encouraged. There is such a rage about the new style of papering. Everybody has run mad on dados and friezes, and fresco patterns, bordering, and harmonies ...
— Hope Mills - or Between Friend and Sweetheart • Amanda M. Douglas

... not utter the name to-day, my Lady! It has been revealed to me as a great secret. It is a name too high for the stroke of the law, if there be any law left us but the will of a King's mistress! God, however, has left us the law of a gentleman's sword to avenge its master's wrong. The Baron de St. Castin will soon return ...
— The Golden Dog - Le Chien d'Or • William Kirby

... so: his life is paralel'd Euen with the stroke and line of his great Iustice: He doth with holie abstinence subdue That in himselfe, which he spurres on his powre To qualifie in others: were he meal'd with that Which he corrects, then were he tirrannous, But this being ...
— The First Folio [35 Plays] • William Shakespeare

... of Verona opened, and the enchantment was gone. He who would carry away the idea of a magnificent city, which the exterior of Verona suggests, must go round it, not through it. The first step within its walls is like the stroke of an enchanter's wand. The villa-begemmed city, with its ramparts and its cypress-trees, takes flight, and there rises before the traveller an old ruinous town, with dirty streets and a ragged and ...
— Pilgrimage from the Alps to the Tiber - Or The Influence of Romanism on Trade, Justice, and Knowledge • James Aitken Wylie

... of those that sacrifice at the hearths of the Gods I can go. But only if the son of Phoebus were viewing with his eyes this light, could she come, having left the darksome habitations and the gates of Pluto: for he raised up the dead, before that the stroke of the lightning's fire hurled by Jove destroyed him. But now what hope of life can I any longer entertain? For all things have already been done by the king, and at the altars of all the Gods abound the victims ...
— The Tragedies of Euripides, Volume I. • Euripides

... not give us at one stroke sculptured figures made from one block, such as rise before us from Tolstoi's pages. His art is rather that of a painter or musical composer than of a sculptor. He has more colour, a deeper perspective, a greater variety of ...
— Rudin • Ivan Turgenev

... to rest a moment and to listen for the stroke of pick or shovel from the opposite side of his living grave. But no sound came to him. He seemed to be in a soundless universe except for the rasp of his own ...
— Doubloons—and the Girl • John Maxwell Forbes

... me!' went on the mocking woman. 'Heliodora, stroke his curls, and give him a kiss, I beseech you. Who knows what dreadful thing ...
— Veranilda • George Gissing

... and yielded the paddle and place to sit; For now the torch was extinguished the night was black as the pit. Rahero set him to row, never a word he spoke, And the boat sang in the water urged by his vigorous stroke. —"What ails you?" the woman asked, "and why did you drop the brand? We have only to kindle another as soon as we come to land." Never a word Rahero replied, but urged the canoe. And a chill fell on the woman.—"Atta! speak! is it you? Speak! ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 14 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

... on, filling his lungs and cheeks with smoke. Their faces were all puffed out like apples as we came abreast of the cliff foot, and the bursting surge fell back into the boat in showers. At the next point 'cocanetti' was the word, and the stroke borrowed my knife, and desisted from his labours to open nuts. These untimely indulgences may be compared to the tot of grog served out before a ship ...
— In the South Seas • Robert Louis Stevenson

... the gossip," thought the old man, "it's ringing through the hills. Well, a dog as can fetch a bone can carry one!" With that conclusion reached, Peter made his master stroke. ...
— The Man Thou Gavest • Harriet T. Comstock

... end of the meal the pastry-cook's wife came in with the countess's baby on her breast. This was a dramatic stroke. The mother burst into a cry of joy, and the woman seemed quite proud of having suckled the scion of so illustrious a house for nearly four hours. It is well known that women, even more than men, are wholly under the sway of the imagination. Who can say that this woman, simple ...
— The Memoires of Casanova, Complete • Jacques Casanova de Seingalt

... was still and frosty; only now and again the heavy stroke of the bell told the town that a ...
— The King's Achievement • Robert Hugh Benson

... began to help her mother in some of her household duties. She became a regular attendant on the ministrations of a very worthy clergyman, having been attracted to his meetin' by witnessing a marriage ceremony in which he called a man and a woman a "gentleman" and a "lady,"—a stroke of gentility which quite overcame her. She even took a part in what she called a Sabbath school, though it was held on Sunday, and by no means on Saturday, as the name she intended to utter implied. All this, ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. IV, No. 26, December, 1859 • Various

... are some men, who, at the fell stroke of chance, neither die nor forget; when it comes their turn to touch misfortune, otherwise called truth, they approach it with a firm step and outstretched hand, and, horrible to say! they mistake love for the livid corpse they have found at the bottom of the river. They seize ...
— Child of a Century, Complete • Alfred de Musset

... to his fellow higher men is well worth studying. By means of it, Nietzsche pays a high tribute to the honesty of the true specialist, while, in representing him as the only one who can resist the demoniacal influence of the magician's music, he elevates him at a stroke, above all those present. Zarathustra and the spiritually conscientious one join issue at the end on the question of the proper place of "fear" in man's history, and Nietzsche avails himself of ...
— Thus Spake Zarathustra - A Book for All and None • Friedrich Nietzsche

... beginning of her discourse, she had turned aside to slap a portion of cornmeal into a cracked yellow bowl, and after pouring a little water out of a broken dipper, she began whipping the dough with a long, irregular stroke that scattered a shower of fine drops at every revolution of her hand. Two of the children had got into a fight over a basin of apple parings, and she left her yellow bowl and separated them with a hand that bestowed a patch of wet meal on the hair of one ...
— The Romance of a Plain Man • Ellen Glasgow

... dreadful strides. At first, there's nothing to resist; He fights with all the forms of peace; He comes about her like a mist, With subtle, swift, unseen increase; And then, unlook'd for, strikes amain Some stroke that frightens her to death, And grows all harmlessness again, Ere she can cry, or get her breath. At times she stops, and stands at bay; But he, in all more strong than she, Subdues her with his pale dismay, Or more admired audacity. She plans ...
— The Angel in the House • Coventry Patmore

... carried out, and if consequently he should be compelled to remain in town over Sunday. On the street corners and in front of the newspaper offices little knots of men, wearing bits of white ribbon in their buttonholes, were idling. They were quiet, curious, dully waiting to see what this preposterous stroke might mean for them. In the heavy noonday air of the streets they moved lethargically, drifting westward to the hall where the A. R. U. committees were in session. Oblivious of his engagements, Sommers followed them, hearing ...
— The Web of Life • Robert Herrick

... "Come on!" and he came, with an awkward, splashing, overhand stroke, like some queer fish with one curved fin out of ...
— Isle o' Dreams • Frederick F. Moore

... burning desire to try. One by one the boys stealthily followed his example; Alfred taking care to watch eagerly, to commend both Stephen Crowley and Gracie Dennis in the same breath for some true stroke, and criticise both Mrs. Roberts and Nimble Dick for ...
— Ester Ried Yet Speaking • Isabella Alden

... therefore had to content myself with smoothing the side of the stook in a business-like way, trusting that the uncertain light would not disclose the insanity of my actions. In a few seconds I moved to another stook, and was commencing to stroke the sheaves, when the same voices demanded, in a peremptory manner, to know what I was really doing. It was a case of bluff, so, busying myself with the heap, I snapped out, "Ach! go away, I have a lot to ...
— 'Brother Bosch', an Airman's Escape from Germany • Gerald Featherstone Knight

... a heavy man—is sometimes as discomposing as a stroke of paralysis. Our friend of the Athenaeum is not to be carried away by fancy, cost free: his imaginative watch at the Palace—for who can doubt that for six hours per diem he is in Buckingham nursery?—has led him into the perpetration of various eccentricities which, when we reflect upon ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 1, December 11, 1841 • Various

... Claremont, which has been the seat of my family for generations; but when a thing must be done there is no use in making a moan over it. I cannot sacrifice my life to a tradition of the past; and that would be what I should do if I clung to the old place, instead of cutting loose with one sharp stroke and swimming boldly ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XII. No. 30. September, 1873 • Various

... obviously, the venerable Maga at her patriarchal age of 1000 numbers could not be kept waiting. Then "Lord Jim," with about seventeen pages already written at odd times, put in his claim which was irresistible. Thus every stroke of the pen was taking me further away from the abandoned "Rescue," not without some compunction on my part but with a gradually diminishing resistance; till at last I let myself go as if recognizing a superior influence against which ...
— Notes on My Books • Joseph Conrad

... the German trench fortifications, the "pill boxes" made of solid cement. I would speak of the deadly curtain fire of the British; he would counter with mysterious allusions to Krupp. And his conclusions were always the same. "Just wait! Germany will win!" And he would stroke his beard placidly. "But, Fritz!" Minna used to cry in a panic, "The gentleman might think differently!" Rhubarb and I would grin at each other, I would buy a tin of tobacco, and ...
— Shandygaff • Christopher Morley

... The master-stroke of the convention, however, was the provision for submitting the constitution to the vote of the people. Voters were not permitted to accept or reject the instrument; all votes were to be for the constitution either "with slavery" or "with no slavery." But the document ...
— The Anti-Slavery Crusade - Volume 28 In The Chronicles Of America Series • Jesse Macy

... lake were completed, the engineers set up three very powerful steam engines, and gave to each one ten or twelve enormous pumps to work. These pumping engines were made on such a grand scale that they lifted over sixty tuns of water at every stroke. But yet so large was the lake, and so vast the quantity of water to be drained, that though there were three of the engines working at this rate, and though they were kept at work night and day, it took them a year and ...
— Rollo in Holland • Jacob Abbott

... gifts and graces, he was handsome, vigorous, and athletic, all in an extraordinary degree. If he had lived in our day he might have pulled the stroke-oar at New London, or pitched ...
— Revolutionary Heroes, And Other Historical Papers • James Parton

... a simple operation. The essential organs of the grape-flower are covered by a small cap; this in some grapes must be removed before the anthers can be reached. In many native grapes, however, the cap and the anthers may be removed at one stroke by the operator. The best tool for this is a small pair of forceps. Each of the blades of the forceps in working with native grapes should have a sharp cutting surface, but with Vinifera sorts, where the cap must be removed before the anthers can ...
— Manual of American Grape-Growing • U. P. Hedrick

... off again, that our ship, which lay the farthest out, had run up her ensign. This meant "Sail ho!'' of course, but as we were within the point we could see nothing. "Give way, boys! Give way! Lay out on your oars, and long stroke!'' said the captain; and stretching to the whole length of our arms, bending back again so that our backs touched the thwarts, we sent her through the water like a rocket. A few minutes of such pulling opened the islands, one after another, in range of ...
— Two Years Before the Mast • Richard Henry Dana

... her desire? This took place contrary to her wish and will—she wished not to long for him, not to call him back, not to love him! Angrily she roused herself and sought to recall the burning gaze with which Soelver had wounded her modesty. So with a vexed and hard stroke of the oars she pushed ...
— Sleep Walking and Moon Walking - A Medico-Literary Study • Isidor Isaak Sadger

... conclude from this that the coexistence of races, possible elsewhere, is impossible in the United States? I distrust those sweeping assertions which resolve problems at one stroke; I refuse, above all, to admit so easily that iniquity must be maintained for the sole reason that it exists, and that it suffices to say: "I am thus made; what would you have? I cannot change myself," to abstract one's self from the accomplishment of the most elementary duty. To endure negroes ...
— The Uprising of a Great People • Count Agenor de Gasparin

... with an air of much experience in such matters. Freeman was more or less grateful. But Smithers met Gilmartin, and full of his good luck repeated what he had told a dozen men within the hour: "I did a dandy stroke the other day. Pa. Cent. looked to me like higher prices and I bought a wad of it. I've cleaned up a tidy sum," and he looked proud of his own penetration. He really had forgotten that it was Gilmartin who had given him the tip. But not so ...
— The Tipster - 1901, From "Wall Street Stories" • Edwin Lefevre

... wall a yard high remained. Houses, in some instances, seemed to have been cut from their foundation, and thrown ten feet distant. The large stone fountain in the Plaza was thrown many yards. The cotton factory, which was built on the edge of a ravine, was by one stroke reduced to fragments. Such was the force of the concussion, the looms smashed each other, the carding-machines were thrown on their sides, and the roof, with part of the machinery, was found in the river below. The proprietor ...
— The Andes and the Amazon - Across the Continent of South America • James Orton

... effect, or an effect inadequate to its cause, poetry may supply the deficiency for the sake of an impressive whole. But it is too much to overset a narrative and call it a historical play.' Then came a tragic stroke ...
— The Life of William Ewart Gladstone, Vol. 1 (of 3) - 1809-1859 • John Morley

... hasty death, how hast them so contrived Thy darts with venomous poison to direct That, by one cruel stroke, not one but three are killed, Sweet wife, a loving ...
— Bell's Cathedrals: The Priory Church of St. Bartholomew-the-Great, Smithfield • George Worley

... ever really sound!" As if anyone not made of stone could be perfectly sound in this world. And then how sound? In what sense—to resist what? Force or corruption? And even in the best armour of steel there are joints a treacherous stroke can always find if chance ...
— Chance - A Tale in Two Parts • Joseph Conrad

... which one never suspected till then; and yet with all these, the most dreadful sense of helplessness, of slavery, of despair?—God grant that may not remain, for then comes the mad hope to escape death by death, to try by one desperate stroke to rid oneself of that self which is for the time one's torment, worm, fire, death, and hell. And what is this dark fight within us? What does the Bible call it? It is death and life, eternal death ...
— Sermons for the Times • Charles Kingsley

... the frigate, but he would not turn his head to look. His first object was to get hold of Jack, and to keep his face out of the water, that, when animation returned, he might not be suffocated. With steady strokes he swam on, admirably retaining his presence of mind. Every stroke was measured. There was no hurry, no bustle, with Murray; he knew that such would only bring worse speed. What an excellent example did he set of the way to attain an important object! Calmly eyeing it, and though clearly comprehending all the difficulties and dangers which surrounded him, with ...
— The Three Midshipmen • W.H.G. Kingston

... day upon which Hiram Wade had brought suit for twenty-five thousand dollars, while Geary was pottering about his swivel office chair with an oil can trying to find out where it creaked, a brilliant idea had suddenly occurred to him, a stroke of genius, a veritable inspiration. Why could he not make the Wade suit a machine with which to force Vandover into the sale ...
— Vandover and the Brute • Frank Norris

... supplemented. "And it's helping you I am to the full stroke of your sword. Love will stray among the highest types, and when it does in steps the green-eyed monster. Suppose the most perfect woman you can imagine should cease to love the man who does not beat her and come to love another man who loves her ...
— The Little Lady of the Big House • Jack London

... it be Thy sacred will That I may go and stroke her hand, Just let me say, "I'm living still! And in a brighter, better land." One word from me will cheer her so, O Lord, if you will ...
— The Next of Kin - Those who Wait and Wonder • Nellie L. McClung

... would be great, but that the Sun doth still, Level his rayes against the rising hill: I would be high, but see the proudest Oak Most subject to the rending Thunder-Stroke; I would be rich, but see men too unkind Dig in the bowels of the richest mind; I would be wise, but that I often see The Fox suspected whilst the Ass goes free; I would be fair, but see the fair and proud Like the bright Sun, oft ...
— The Complete Angler 1653 • Isaak Walton

... which the valve is just commencing to uncover. As the piston moves, the valve moves in the same direction until the port is fully uncovered, when it begins to move back again; and just before the piston has finished its stroke the steam-way on the right begins to open. The steam-way on the left is now in communication with the exhaust port E, so that the steam that has done its duty is released and pressed from the cylinder by the piston. Reciprocation is this backward and forward motion of the piston: hence the ...
— How it Works • Archibald Williams

... it on my journey the following morning, but it was not until the 17th, on my arrival in Paris, that I heard the full details of it from the waiter in my hotel. I looked upon this event as a malicious stroke of fate, aimed at me personally. Even at breakfast on the following morning, I feared I should see my old acquaintance, the agent of the Ministry of the Interior, walk in and demand my instant departure from Paris as a political refugee. I presumed that as ...
— My Life, Volume II • Richard Wagner

... the combatants, the dogs without a sound—the cougar uttering muffled screams, its great paws beating the air. One stroke reached Mustard, hurling him fully a rod away, where he fell and lay quivering, a dull red rent ...
— The Pony Rider Boys in the Rockies • Frank Gee Patchin

... last stroke quivered out onto the new hour, he came. He sat down beside her and putting aside the guitar, drew her close ...
— The Daughter of a Republican • Bernie Babcock

... knocker, followed by three light ones and a second heavy stroke, produced us an answer from within. The door unclosed, and by the light of a dim lamp, I discovered before me, as a sort of warden, a little yellow, weather-beaten, skin-dried Frenchman, whom I had frequently before seen at a fruit-shop in ...
— Confession • W. Gilmore Simms

... cheers from the dock, and from the crew in the bows, and from the passengers on the quarter-deck, the noble ship strikes the first stroke of her destined race, and swims away towards the ocean. "There he is, there he is," shouts Fred Bayham, waving his hat. "God bless him, God bless him!" I scarce perceived at the ship's side, beckoning an adieu, our dear old friend, when the lady, whose ...
— The Newcomes • William Makepeace Thackeray

... approached and seized Jesus, some of the apostles, ready to fight and die for their beloved Master, asked, "Lord, shall we smite with the sword?" Peter, waiting not for a reply, drew his sword and delivered a poorly aimed stroke at the head of one of the nearest of the crowd, whose ear was severed by the blade. The man thus wounded was Malchus, a servant of the high priest. Jesus, asking liberty of His captors by the simple request, "Suffer ye thus far,"[1246] stepped ...
— Jesus the Christ - A Study of the Messiah and His Mission According to Holy - Scriptures Both Ancient and Modern • James Edward Talmage

... plantin', weedin' and hoein'; then harvest and spreadin' compost; then gatherin' manure, fencin' and ditchin'; and then turn tu and fall ploughin' agin. It all went round like a wheel without stoppin', and so fast, I guess you couldn't see the spokes, just one long everlastin' stroke from July to etarnity, without time to look back on the tracks. Instead of racin' over the country like a young doctor, to show how busy a man is that has nothin' to do, as Bluenose does, and then take a 'blowin' time,' we kept a rale travellin' gait, an eight-mile-an-hour ...
— The Clockmaker • Thomas Chandler Haliburton

... Scripture, mensioun is maad of orologis, schewing the houris of the dai bi the schadew maad bi the sunne in a cercle, certis nevere, save in late daies, was eny clok telling the houris of the dai and nyht bi peise and bi stroke; and open it is that noughwhere in holi scripture is expresse mensioun made of eny suche." Where does the Bible say that it should be translated into English?[873] In the same tone of voice Wyclif had pointed out, in the preceding century, the abuses of the Church; in ...
— A Literary History of the English People - From the Origins to the Renaissance • Jean Jules Jusserand

... war the German fleet might have had one chance in ten of getting a turn of fortune in its favour by an unexpected stroke of strategy. This was the danger against which Jellicoe had to guard. For in one sense, the Germans had the tactical offensive by sea as well as by land; theirs the outward thrust from the centre. They could choose when to come out of their harbour; when to strike. The British had to ...
— My Year of the War • Frederick Palmer

... and to Elfrida Bell. She had shrunk from that for months, had put it away habitually in the furthest corner of her consciousness, and had done her best to make it stay there. She discovered how sore its fret had been only with the relief she felt when she simplified it at a stroke that afternoon on which everything came to an end between her and Elfrida. Since the burden of obligation their relation imposed had been removed Janet had analyzed her friendship, and had found it wanting in many ways to which she had been wilfully ...
— A Daughter of To-Day • Sara Jeannette Duncan (aka Mrs. Everard Cotes)

... fair rot, you know. Here have I been fair sweating away at the exams, every minute of my time, and Jeffries, who has not done a stroke, is ...
— The Loom of Youth • Alec Waugh

... Indian babies, grave-faced even in their play, vivacious French little ones calling to each other in shrill patois, laughing and tumbling and climbing. Had she once been wild and merry like them? Then Pani would babble of the past and stroke the soft curls and call her "little one." What a curious dream ...
— A Little Girl in Old Detroit • Amanda Minnie Douglas

... He was now playing his final game in Florence, and the skill he was conscious of applying gave him a pleasure in it even apart from the expected winnings. The errand on which he was bent to San Marco was a stroke in which he felt so much confidence that he had already given notice to the Ten of his desire to resign his office at an indefinite period within the next month or two, and had obtained permission to make that resignation ...
— Romola • George Eliot

... "I cannot help it. Yonder woman's darling must have a stroke. None shall hinder me. Let him look to his life. I care not how ...
— The Fall of the Niebelungs • Unknown

... Then he caught up his own work and his grin faded. "Tricks ... yes, that's what he can do, Miss Vail. Conjuring tricks. He can turn a skulking alley rat into something faintly resembling a man—but"—his courage and brightness fell from him like a masker's domino on the stroke of twelve and the fingers rose to his face, picking and plucking—"he can't keep ...
— Jane Journeys On • Ruth Comfort Mitchell

... That was the decisive stroke. In the face of that reproach, with wrath and desperation mingled, like one who rushes to suicide, Juli closed her eyes in order not to see the abyss into which she was hurling herself and resolutely entered the convento. ...
— The Reign of Greed - Complete English Version of 'El Filibusterismo' • Jose Rizal

... of being at his office desk at nine o'clock in the morning began to seem a hardship after the first three or four days. For Mr. Fletcher not to walk into his shop on the stroke of ten would have been such a reversal of his habits as to cause him as much annoyance as it caused Jack to be bound to a fixed hour. It was only the difference in training. But that ...
— Baddeck and That Sort of Thing • Charles Dudley Warner

... miserable and depressed, in spite of her good intentions; and as she stood, half leaning against the shutter in unconscious weariness of body, yet intent with all her mind upon the one subject that engrossed her, she heard the distant stroke of a ...
— Name and Fame - A Novel • Adeline Sergeant

... not mean him to wait long enough for that needlework to be finished," she said, lifting her hands to stroke the backward curves of her hair, while she rose from her seat and ...
— Daniel Deronda • George Eliot

... at the thought of it. When he bade them farewell he was so glad to be free of them that he almost loved them. When he found himself actually on the little jerkwater train that was to connect him with the main line he patted the dusty red plush seat, gratefully, as one would stroke a faithful beast. When he came into the Grand Central station he would have stooped and kissed the steps of the marble staircase if his porter had not been on the point of vanishing with his bags. That night on reaching home he stayed in the bathtub for an hour, just lying there in ...
— Gigolo • Edna Ferber

... bethought himself of how easily he could, by a stroke of enchantment, close with a wall the way to the Cave Hall and leave only that one open which led to the Pit of Fumes. Then if by some strange means his sister should contrive to escape from her dungeon, she would unsuspectingly go on to the Pit of Fumes. This she would be unable ...
— The Shadow Witch • Gertrude Crownfield

... the graces, and corrupts the heart of woman; and at best can produce only a cold model of perfection; which though perhaps strictly conformable to rule, can never touch the soul, or please the unprejudiced taste, like one simple stroke of genuine nature. ...
— Tales And Novels, Vol. 8 • Maria Edgeworth

... banker in New York who issued my letter of credit had not failed. His standing was as good as ever it had been. But the world's system of international exchange of credit had suffered a stroke of paralysis ...
— The New York Times Current History of the European War, Vol. 1, January 9, 1915 - What Americans Say to Europe • Various

... is to be observed, that these words, Non scitur certo annus quo natus est P. Franciscus Xaverius, are dashed out with the stroke of a pen. There is also a line drawn over these other words, Natum eum dici millesimo, quadragintesimo, nonagesimo-sexto: and this is written over head, Natus est P. Franciscus Xaverius anno millesimo quingentesimo ...
— The Works of John Dryden, Volume XVI. (of 18) - The Life of St. Francis Xavier • John Dryden

... boat moved on steadily up the stream, her sturdy oarsmen pulling at a measured stroke through the bewildering fog. In this way the boat was kept on up the river until past midnight, a glimpse of the land being caught here and there, an assurance to Hanz that they were not far out at sea. Indeed, Hanz began to get somewhat uneasy, and to wish himself back with Angeline in ...
— The Von Toodleburgs - Or, The History of a Very Distinguished Family • F. Colburn Adams

... and looked at from another point of view it is swathed in blackness, as the most awful display of man's unbridled antagonism to the good. And looked at from yet another, it assumes a still more lurid aspect as the last stroke which the kingdom of darkness attempted to strike in defence of its ancient and solitary reign. So earth, heaven, hell, the God that works through man's evil passions, and yet does not acquit them though He utilises them to a lofty issue; man that is evil and thinks ...
— Expositions Of Holy Scripture - Volume I: St. Luke, Chaps. I to XII • Alexander Maclaren

... writing-table—Justine vibrated back and forth, quick, noiseless, self-possessed—sobering, guiding, controlling her confused and panic-stricken world. It seemed to her that half the day had elapsed before the telegraph office at Lynbrook opened—she was at the telephone at the stroke of the hour. No telegram? Only one—a message from Halford Gaines—"Arrive at eight tonight." Amherst was still silent! Was there a difference of time to be allowed for? She tried to remember, to calculate, but her brain was too crowded with other thoughts.... She ...
— The Fruit of the Tree • Edith Wharton

... his eyes. With this man so well-disposed a day—a single hour—of the white man's miracles would have cemented his friendship. But Kingozi was deprived at a stroke of the great advantages to be gained by cutting out paper dolls, making coins disappear and appear again, and all the rest of the bag of tricks. He had not even the alternative advantage of a store of rich gifts with which to buy the chief's favour. This crude alternative to subtle diplomacy ...
— The Leopard Woman • Stewart Edward White et al

... event' in my life, my first 'stroke' in the new business I had undertaken of an author; yes, and of an author on his own account. I would address," says Coleridge, "an affectionate exhortation to the youthful literati on my own experience. It will be but short; for the beginning, ...
— The Life of Samuel Taylor Coleridge - 1838 • James Gillman

... impossible to tell; for idolaters of every grade apply these terms to the multitudinous objects of their adoration. With the fourth commandment to point out the Author of the decalogue, the claims of every false god are annulled at one stroke; for the God who here demands our worship is not any created being, but the One who created them all. The maker of the earth and sea, the sun and moon, and all the starry host, the upholder and governor of the universe, is the One who claims, and who, from his position, has ...
— The United States in the Light of Prophecy • Uriah Smith

... and the others, but it was certainly unselfish of Pettigrew to lie so freely on my account. At the time, however, the plot enraged me, for the lady conceived the absurd idea that I had sent Pettigrew to her. Undoubtedly it was a bold stroke. Pettigrew's scheme was to play upon his hostess's attachment for me by hinting to her that if I gave up smoking I would probably die. Finding her attentive rather than talkative, he soon dared to assure her that he himself loathed tobacco and only ...
— My Lady Nicotine - A Study in Smoke • J. M. Barrie

... masts, with clouds of sail, Bent to the breeze or braved the gale; No towering chimney's wreaths of smoke Betrayed the mighty engine's stroke; But low and dark, Like the crafty shark, Moved in ...
— How the Flag Became Old Glory • Emma Look Scott

... In such circumstances it would go through an ordinary house, train and all, as a rifle-bullet would go through a cheese. It was an eight-wheeled engine, and the driving-wheels were eight feet in diameter. The cylinder was eighteen inches, with a piston of two feet stroke, and the total weight of engine and tender was fifty-three tons. The cost of this iron horse with its ...
— The Iron Horse • R.M. Ballantyne

... then, according to Turkish law, a third of the refugee's property would fall to you; otherwise it would belong to no one. The father is dead, the girl, if you do not rouse her, will never wake again; thus you would become at one stroke a rich man. Only rich people are worth anything in this world—poor devils are only ...
— Timar's Two Worlds • Mr Jkai

... fearing that somebody else might hear the doctor, and that war would begin—"listen to me: 'Hell has no fury like a nation scorned.'" Here Doctor Castleton shot a glance at the little man, to see whether or not so fine a stroke was appreciated, and whether his quotation was or was not passing as original. "I repeat, 'Hell has no fury like a nation scorned'—Nation, you hear, Pickles—nation, not woman. There is just one thing to save this crumbling Republic; give us more paper money—greenbacks on greenbacks, ...
— A Strange Discovery • Charles Romyn Dake

... on the stroke of midnight. They came back on foot, and steathily, like burglars. Before one o'clock in the morning David was installed in the impenetrable hiding-place prepared by his wife in Basine Clerget's house. No one saw him enter it, ...
— Lost Illusions • Honore De Balzac

... speakers supposed I did not understand. I sat on irresolute. In a little while, however, either the wine having got into my head, or the food and warmth having restored my courage, I began to contemplate the bolder stroke of suddenly revealing myself by some unexpected remark. They went on talking about the country, and ...
— Wilfrid Cumbermede • George MacDonald

... Ibsen's "Ghosts," the stage, the actors, the dialogue merge and fall away, and the overwhelming meaning stands revealed in its complete intensity. As the play opens, it cuts out a segment from the chaos of human life; step by step it excludes all that is unessential, stroke by stroke with an inevitableness that is crushing, it converges to the great one-thing that the dramatist wanted to say, until at the end the spectator, conscious no longer of the medium but only of the idea and all-resolving emotion, ...
— The Gate of Appreciation - Studies in the Relation of Art to Life • Carleton Noyes

... reverent, and loved her new relations more and more for their sorrows; and she began to dream out castles of the wonderful goodness by which she would comfort them; then she looked for her uncle's hand to see if she could dare to stroke it, but one was over his brow, the other out of reach, and she was ...
— Countess Kate • Charlotte M. Yonge

... And he took some of the reeds, and placing them together, of unequal lengths, side by side, made an instrument which he called Syrinx, in honor of the nymph." Before Mercury had finished his story, he saw Argus's eyes all asleep. As his head nodded forward on his breast, Mercury with one stroke cut his neck through, and tumbled his head down the rocks. O hapless Argus! The light of your hundred eyes is quenched at once! Juno took them and put them as ornaments on the tail of her peacock, where they ...
— TITLE • AUTHOR

... would go, and she ate nothing but the tears she swallowed; going down those steps, through that dreadful door, waiting on those tables—the evening, till Will Prescott came in. She had wanted so to have what others had, to study, to paint—such things as she had seen, and she couldn't make a stroke! to learn to sing, as she had heard them sing in the churches; to see Germany, that her mother had told her about; she wanted to be loved—not like father and Nobby, but another way too; she had a right ...
— Continental Monthly , Vol. 6, No. 1, July, 1864 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy. • Various



Words linked to "Stroke" :   beat, accident, ischaemic stroke, upstroke, caress, break, good luck, cam stroke, row, touch, hair stroke, undercut, fondle, key stroke, miscue, baseball swing, happenstance, slash, sport, tennis stroke, oarsman, ground stroke, motility, play, butterfly stroke, coincidence, fortuity, throw, punctuation, virgule, rower, hap, print, shot, apoplexy, cut, cerebrovascular accident, hit, manoeuvre, underscore, attack, golf game, instroke, lottery, backhand stroke, touching, keystroke, motion, chance event, happening, mark, strike, diagonal, golf stroke, lap, maneuver, four-stroke engine, CVA, occurrent, cerebral hemorrhage, score, golf, underline, punctuation mark, blandish, lick, move, haemorrhagic stroke, stroke play, locomotion, occurrence, carom, travel, golf shot, tennis shot, flatter, blow, athletics, swimming stroke, masse shot, follow-through, separatrix, forehand stroke, hemorrhagic stroke, masse, swing, swipe, movement, cannon, stroking, natural event, four-stroke internal-combustion engine, ischemic stroke, solidus, flick, bow, happy chance, outstroke, downstroke



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