/ strəʊk; NAmE stroʊk/ noun , verb
■ noun
HITTING MOVEMENT
1.
an act of hitting a ball, for example with a bat or racket :
What a beautiful stroke!
He won by two strokes (= in golf , by taking two fewer strokes than his opponent) .
2.
a single movement of the arm when hitting sb/sth :
His punishment was six strokes of the cane.
IN SWIMMING / ROWING
3.
any of a series of repeated movements in swimming or rowing :
She took a few more strokes to reach the bank.
4.
(often in compounds) a style of swimming :
Butterfly is the only stroke I can't do.
—see also backstroke , breaststroke
5.
the person who sets the speed at which everyone in a boat rows
GENTLE TOUCH
6.
[ usually sing. ] ( especially BrE ) an act of moving your hand gently over a surface, usually several times :
He gave the cat a stroke.
OF PEN / BRUSH
7.
a mark made by moving a pen, brush, etc. once across a surface :
to paint with fine brush strokes
At the stroke of a pen (= by signing sth) they removed thousands of people from the welfare system.
ACTION
8.
stroke (of sth) a single successful action or event :
Your idea was a stroke of genius .
It was a stroke of luck that I found you here.
It was a bold stroke to reveal the identity of the murderer on the first page.
She never does a stroke (of work) (= never does any work) .
—see also masterstroke
OF CLOCK
9.
each of the sounds made by a clock or bell giving the hours :
At the first stroke it will be 9 o'clock exactly.
on the stroke of three (= at 3 o'clock exactly)
ILLNESS
10.
a sudden serious illness when a blood vessel (= tube) in the brain bursts or is blocked, which can cause death or the loss of the ability to move or to speak clearly :
to have / suffer a stroke
The stroke left him partly paralysed.
•
IDIOMS
- at a (single) stroke | at one stroke
- put sb off their stroke
■ verb
[ vn ]
TOUCH GENTLY
1.
( especially BrE ) to move your hand gently and slowly over an animal's fur or hair :
He's a beautiful dog. Can I stroke him?
—see also pet
2.
to move your hand gently over a surface, sb's hair, etc. :
He stroked her hair affectionately.
MOVE STH GENTLY
3.
[+ adv. / prep. ] to move sth somewhere with a gentle movement :
She stroked away his tears.
He stroked the ball between the posts.
BE NICE TO SB
4.
( informal , especially NAmE ) to be very nice to sb, especially to get them to do what you want
••
WORD ORIGIN
Old English strācian caress lightly , of Germanic origin; related to Dutch streek a stroke, German streichen to stroke, also to strike . The earliest noun sense blow is first recorded in Middle English .