stroke

STROKE, STROOK, for struck.STROKE, noun [from strike.]1. A blow; the striking of one body against another; applicable to a club or to any heavy body, or to a rod, whip or lash. A piece of timber falling may kill a man by its stroke; a man when whipped, can hardly fail to flinch or wince at every stroke Th oars were silver, which to the time of flutes kept stroke--2. A hostile blow or attack.He entered and won the whole kingdom of Naples without striking a stroke 3. A sudden attack of disease or affliction; calamity.At this one stroke the man lookd dead in law.4. Fatal attack; as the stroke of death.5. The sound of the clock.What is t oclock? Upon the stroke of four.6. The touch of a pencil.Oh, lasting as those colors may they shine, free as thy stroke yet faultless as thy line.Some parts of my work have been brightened by the strokes of your lordshipss pencil.7. A touch; a masterly effort; as the boldest strokes of poetry.He will give one of the finishing strokes to it.8. An effort suddenly or unexpectedly produced.9. Power; efficacy.He has a great stroke with the reader, when he condemns any of my poems, to make the world have a better opinion of them.[I believe this sense is obsolete.]10. A dash in writing or printing; a line; a touch of the pen; as a hair stroke STROKE, verb transitive [See Strike and Strict.]1. To rub gently with the hand by way of expressing kindness or tenderness; to soothe.He dried the falling drops, and yet more kind, he strokd her cheeks--2. To rub gently in one direction.3. To make smooth