Strike
“Strike!” is what the umpire says if I miss hitting the ball with my bat playing baseball. It is also a command telling the workers to stop work in objection to something the company is or is not doing, usually not providing the wanted pay raise. A strike in bowling is when on the first try I knock down all the pins. I might say “strike!” in jubilation when that happens.
To strike a pose is to orient my body to represent a feeling, like posing like a muscle builder to let you know I feel like a strong winner. The lawyer objects to a question posed by the opposing lawyer, convinces the judge that it is unacceptable and the judge may then direct that the question and response be stricken from the record. That is somewhat like when we strike someone or something off our list
I might be dumbstruck by something or someone, meaning they are so completely over the top as to be unbelievable and I am stopped in awe. I don’t know if that has happened to me very much but I can be dumbstruck by what a grandchild can do or say. Being dumbstruck is not like experiencing a strike by lightening, though maybe those are kinda the same in many ways. Ever been dumbstruck?
To strike an object, like a drum, is to hit it, usually with a mallet, in order to get the sound we want from that drum. To strike down an idea, could be just plain cruel or a path to salvation having stopped some kind of evil. The idea is that it is struck down so completely it cannot arise from the strike. When I strike I am well advised to choose my object realizing that once struck down, it won’t return.
To strike a match is to slide it across a rough surface to ignite the phosphor tip. I can strike out in many ways, not just baseball. To strike out is to try and fail. I suppose some will say, better to have tried and failed than not to have tried at all. Am I, having struck out, useless, hopeless, no longer wanted or ready to learn something and go on to strike again, looking for that hit that so satisfies? Can I strike out in a new direction?
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