Also 7 strout. [f. STRUT v.1] A manner of walking with stiff steps and head erect, affecting dignity or superiority; a stiff, self-important gait.
1607. G. Wilkins, Mis. Enf. Marr., IV. G 2. Curle vp your haire, walke with the best strouts you can.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 335, ¶ 2. Upon the entring of Pyrrhus, the Knight told me, that he did not believe the King of France himself had a better Strut.
1768. H. Walpole, Lett. to Earl Strafford, 16 Aug. He has the sublime strut of his grandfather, or of a cock-sparrow.
1784. Cowper, Task, V. 74. The cock foregoes His wonted strut.
1847. De Quincey, Sp. Mil. Nun, xii. Wks. 1853, III. 32. Mr. Urquiza entered first, with a strut more than usually grandiose.
b. fig.
c. 1800. A. Hamilton, in F. S. Oliver, Life (1906), 198. Real firmness is good for anything; strut is good for nothing.
1861. Pearson, Early & Mid. Ages Eng., xxvii. 330. A little more strut and bluster are required for the heroes who tread the stage of the world.
1877. Mrs. Oliphant, Makers Flor., vi. 167. That strut and crow of conscious superiority which is … so common among his class.
