Apedia

Stroke Gently Move I Sb Sth Hitting Movement

Front stroke
Back  stroke
noun, verb
BrE /strəʊk/
NAmE /stroʊk/
noun
 word origin
 example bank

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.
He swam with long powerful strokes.
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 singular] (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 ~ (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.

at a (single) ˈstroke| at one ˈstroke
with a single immediate action
They threatened to cancel the whole project at a stroke.
put sb off their ˈstroke (BrE) to make sb make a mistake or hesitate in what they are doing
My speech was going well until I was put off my stroke by an interruption.
verb
 verb forms
 word origin
 thesaurus
 example bank

touch gently
1 ~ sth (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 ~ sth/sb to move your hand gently over a surface, sb's hair, etc

He stroked her hair affectionately.

move sth gently
3 ~ sth + 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 ~ sb (informal, especially NAmE) to be very nice to sb, especially to get them to do what you want

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