strike a stroke meaning (archaic): definition, quotations

strike a stroke

verb

Archaic To hit (especially with a sword); to successfully land a hit.

1625, Samuel Purchas, Purchas His Pilgrimes, London: Henry Fetherstone, Part 4, “Voyages to and about the Southerne America,” Chapter 5, section 4, pp. 1395-1396, […] it is reported, and credibly beleeued, that hee did much more good with his words, and presence, without striking a stroke, then a great part of the Armie did with fighting to the vtmost.
“Methinks,”—said he,—“it would be no great shame “If we should strike a stroke to set us free; […]”1821 August 8, [Lord Byron], Don Juan, Cantos III, IV, and V, London: […] Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC, canto V, stanza 48, page 156:

Archaic, Figuratively To do something to support or defend (for) or to hinder or harm (at / against) something or someone.

You all consented unto Salisbury’s death, For none would strike a stroke in his revenge.1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v]:
He saw his followers pining around him under the blighting malaria, wasting before an invisible enemy, and unable to strike a stroke in their own defence.1847, William Hickling Prescott, History of the Conquest of Peru, New York: Harper and Brothers, Volume 2, Book 4, Chapter 5, p. 194:

2 more examples

In the year ’45, my brother raised a part of the ‘Gregara,’ and marched six companies to strike a stroke for the good side;1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, “chapter 25”, in Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 1886, →OCLC, page 263:
“I know you are the best knight in the world, but be careful ’ow you fight in a wrong quarrel. God might strike a stroke for justice, Sir Lancelot, after all.”1958, T. H. White, The Once and Future King, New York: Putnam, Part 3, Chapter 43, p. 535: