What is "to strike at"

Strike \Strike\, v. i. To move; to advance; to proceed; to take a course; as, to strike into the fields. A mouse . . . struck forth sternly [bodily]. --Piers Plowman. 2. To deliver a quick blow or thrust; to give blows. And fiercely took his trenchant blade in hand, With which he stroke so furious and so fell. --Spenser. Strike now, or else the iron cools. --Shak. 3. To hit; to collide; to dush; to clash; as, a hammer strikes against the bell of a clock. 4. To sound by percussion, with blows, or as with blows; to be struck; as, the clock strikes. A deep sound strikes like a rising knell. --Byron. 5. To make an attack; to aim a blow. A puny subject strikes At thy great glory. --Shak. Struck for throne, and striking found his doom. --Tennyson. 6. To touch; to act by appulse. Hinder light but from striking on it [porphyry], and its colors vanish. --Locke. 7. To run upon a rock or bank; to be stranded; as, the ship struck in the night. 8. To pass with a quick or strong effect; to dart; to penetrate. Till a dart strike through his liver. --Prov. vii. 23. Now and then a glittering beam of wit or passion strikes through the obscurity of the poem. --Dryden. 9. To break forth; to commence suddenly; -- with into; as, to strike into reputation; to strike into a run. 10. To lower a flag, or colors, in token of respect, or to signify a surrender of a ship to an enemy. That the English ships of war should not strike in the Danish seas. --Bp. Burnet. 1

1. To quit work in order to compel an increase, or prevent a reduction, of wages.

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2. To become attached to something; -- said of the spat of oysters.

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3. To steal money. [Old Slang, Eng.] --Nares. To strike at, to aim a blow at. To strike for, to start suddenly on a course for. To strike home, to give a blow which reaches its object, to strike with effect. To strike in.

   1. To enter suddenly.

   2. To disappear from the surface, with internal effects, as an eruptive disease.

   3. To come in suddenly; to interpose; to interrupt. ``I proposed the embassy of Constantinople for Mr. Henshaw, but my Lord Winchelsea struck in.''
      --Evelyn.

   4. To join in after another has begun,as in singing. To strike in with, to conform to; to suit itself to; to side with, to join with at once. ``To assert this is to strike in with the known enemies of God's grace.'' --South. To strike out.

      1. To start; to wander; to make a sudden excursion; as, to strike out into an irregular course of life.

      2. To strike with full force.

      3. (Baseball) To be put out for not hitting the ball during one's turn at the bat.

         To strike up, to commence to play as a musician; to begin to sound, as an instrument. ``Whilst any trump did sound, or drum struck up.''
         --Shak.