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To thrust with a sword or spear; to lunge. [Obs.] He stroke, he soused, he foynd, he hewed, he lashed. Spenser. They lash, they foin, they pass, they strive to bore Their corselets, and the thinnest parts explore. Dryden.

To bungle; to manage awkwardly; to treat or play unskillfully; as, to foozle a stroke in golf.

A four-stroke cycle, as the Otto cycle, for an internal- combustion engine. -- Four"-cy`cle, a.

r (Steam Engine), the arrangement of parts for cutting off steam at a certain part of the stroke, so as to leave it to act upon the piston expansively; the cut-off. See under Expansion. -- Feed gear. See Feed motion, under Feed, n. -- Gear cutter, a machine or tool for forming the teeth of gear wheels by cutting. --…

Fig.: Leadership; management. An artful stroke of generalship in Trim to raise a dust. Sterne.

A stroke with a rod or switch; a severe spasm; a twinge; a pang. Conscience . . . is freed from many fearful girds and twinges which the atheist feels. Tillotson.

of a series of small holes in the ground and brings it into the last hole with the fewest strokes is the winner. [Scot.] Strutt.

3. -- Grace note (Mus.), an appoggiatura. See Appoggiatura, and def. 11 above. -- Grace stroke, a finishing stoke or touch; a coup de grace. -- Means of grace, means of securing knowledge of God, or favor with God, as the preaching of the gospel, etc. -- To do grace, to reflect credit upon. Content to do the profes…

A machine for beheading a person by one stroke of a heavy ax or blade, which slides in vertical guides, is raised by a cord, and let fall upon the neck of the victim.

To cut irregulary, without skill or definite purpose; to notch; to mangle by repeated strokes of a cutting instrument; as, to hack a post. My sword hacked like a handsaw. Shak.

n the "massive iron hammers" of the whole earth. J. H. Newman. Atmospheric hammer, a dead-stroke hammer in which the spring is formed by confined air. -- Drop hammer, Face hammer, etc. See under Drop, Face, etc. -- Hammer fish. See Hammerhead. -- Hammer hardening, the process of hardening metal by hammering it when…

Performed by the hand. [Obs.] To draw up and come to handy strokes. Milton.

To be undetermined or uncertain; to be in suspense; to linger; to be delayed. A noble stroke he lifted high, Which hung not, but so swift with tempest fell On the proud crest of Satan. Milton. To hang around, to loiter idly about. -- To hang back, to hesitate; to falter; to be reluctant. "If any one among you hangs ba…

culiar manneHatching. Shall win this sword, silvered and hatched. Chapman. Those hatching strokes of the pencil. Dryden.

A light cloth covering for the head and neck, used by soldiers as a protection from sunstroke.

To make the sound expressed by the word hem; hence, to hesitate in speaking. "Hem, and stroke thy beard." Shak.

To reach with a stroke or blow; to strike or touch, usually with force; especially, to reach or touch (an object aimed at). I think you have hit the mark. Shak.

e; to humilate. Here, take this purse, thou whom the heaven's plagues Have humbled to all strokes. Shak. The genius which humbled six marshals of France. Macaulay.

A stroke or blow, as in a sunstroke, the sting of an insect, pulsation of an artery, etc.

immediate council." Shak. Death . . . not yet inflicted, as he feared, By some immediate stroke. Milton.