[f. STROKE sb.1]
I. 1. trans. To mark with streaks or stripes. So Stroked ppl. a., striped. rare. Cf. STRAKE v.4, STRAKED ppl. a.
1597. A. M., trans. Guillemeau’s Fr. Chirurg., 31/4. Those [leeches] which have the backes stripped, stroked with gouldeyellow strokes.
1896. W. Harvey, Kennethcrook, 35 (E. D. D.). If there ’s siccan things as spottit horses, what ails ye at strokit anes?
† 2. To depict with strokes of the brush. Obs.
1624. Wotton, Elem. Archit., II. 84. Such a seeming softnesse in the Limbes, as if not a Chissell had hewed them out of Stone,… but a Pensill had drawne and stroaked them in Oyle.
3. To draw the horizontal line across the upright of (the letter t); to cross. Also fig.: cf. T 1 b.
1894. Max Pemberton, Sea Wolves, xi. (1901), 51. What I can spell right here is thirst, and stroke the t’s, too!
1897. Bookman, Jan., 120/1. So Landor dotted the i’s, stroked the t’s, put in qualifying words, and flat contradictions, yet all in a friendly way.
4. With out or through: To cancel by drawing a line or lines across; to cross out.
1885. Emily D. Gerard, Waters of Hercules, xxv. Half of what I had written was stroked through.
1910. G. Stevenson, Suppl. Montgomerie’s Poems (S.T.S.), 247, note. The name ‘hay’ has been stroked out.
† II. 5. nonce-use. To throw into (a palsy). Cf. STROKE sb.1 5.
1647. J. Hall, Poems, II. 78. In thine Eye Carrying an all-enraged Majesty; That shall the Earth into a Palsie stroke, And make the Clouds sigh out themselves in smoake.
III. 6. To row stroke in (a boat); to act as stroke to (a crew).
1866. Morn. Star, 14 Feb. They are alternately stroked by Messrs. Brown and Senhouse.
1874. Shotover Papers, I. No. xi. 172. They wanted Jones to stroke the Varsity boat.
1899. Daily News, 16 Feb., 7/2. In the last two races he had the satisfaction of stroking his side to victory.
