Noun

(en noun)

(Christianity, historical) One of the daily offices of prayer of the Western Church, associated with the early morning (typically 6 a.m.).

* Spenser

Early and late it rung, at evening and at prime .

(obsolete) The early morning.

* 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queene) , I.vi:

They all as glad, as birdes of ioyous Prime

The earliest stage of something.

* Hooker

in the very prime of the world

* Waller

Hope waits upon the flowery prime .

The most active, thriving, or successful stage or period.

* Eustace

cut off in their prime

* Dryden

the prime of youth

* {{quote-news, year=2012, date=April 29, author=Nathan Rabin

, title= TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Treehouse of Horror III” (season 4, episode 5; originally aired 10/29/1992) , passage=And it’s daunting because each segment has to tell a full, complete story in something like six minutes while doing justice to revered source material and including the non-stop laughs and genius gags that characterized The Simpsons in its god-like prime .}}

* 1965 , (Bob Dylan), (Like a Rolling Stone)

Once upon a time you dressed so fine. You threw the bums a dime in your prime , didn’t you?

The chief or best individual or part.

* Jonathan Swift

Give him always of the prime .

(music) The first note or tone of a musical scale.

(fencing) The first defensive position, with the sword hand held at head height, and the tip of the sword at head height.

(algebra, number theory) A prime element of a mathematical structure, particularly a prime number.

* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author= Sarah Glaz

, title= Ode to Prime Numbers , volume=101, issue=4, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Some poems, echoing the purpose of early poetic treatises on scientific principles, attempt to elucidate the mathematical concepts that underlie prime numbers. Others play with primes’' cultural associations. Still others derive their structure from mathematical patterns involving ' primes .}}

(card games) A four-card hand containing one card of each suit in the game of primero; the opposite of a flush in poker.

(backgammon) Six consecutive blocks, which prevent the opponent's pieces from passing.

The symbol

(chemistry, obsolete) Any number expressing the combining weight or equivalent of any particular element; so called because these numbers were respectively reduced to their lowest relative terms on the fixed standard of hydrogen as 1.

An inch, as composed of twelve seconds in the duodecimal system.

Noun

(wikipedia stroke) (en noun)

An act of (gloss, moving one's hand over a surface).

A blow or hit.

* Bible, Deuteronomy xix. 5

His hand fetcheth a stroke with the axe to cut down the tree.

* Francis Bacon

He entered and won the whole kingdom of Naples without striking a stroke .

A single movement with a tool.

# (golf) A single act of striking at the ball with a club.

# (tennis) The hitting of a ball with a racket, or the movement of the racket and arm that produces that impact.

# (rowing) The movement of an oar or paddle through water, either the pull which actually propels the vessel or a single entire cycle of movement including the pull.

# (cricket) The action of hitting the ball with the bat; a shot.

# A thrust of a piston.

One of a series of beats or movements against a resisting medium, by means of which movement through or upon it is accomplished.

the stroke of a bird's wing in flying, or of an oar in rowing

the stroke of a skater, swimmer, etc.

A powerful or sudden effort by which something is done, produced, or accomplished; also, something done or accomplished by such an effort.

a stroke''' of genius; a '''stroke''' of business; a master '''stroke of policy

A line drawn with a pen or other writing implement.

# (hence, British) The symbol .

# (linguistics) A line of a Chinese, Japanese or Korean character.

The time when a clock strikes.

* {{quote-news, year=2012, date=May 9, author=John Percy, work=the Telegraph

, title= Birmingham City 2 Blackpool 2 (2-3 on agg): match report , passage=Already guarding a 1-0 lead from the first leg, Blackpool inched further ahead when Stephen Dobbie scored from an acute angle on the stroke of half-time. The game appeared to be completely beyond Birmingham’s reach three minutes into the second period when Matt Phillips reacted quickly to bundle the ball past Colin Doyle and off a post.}}

(swimming) A style, a single movement within a style.

* , chapter=7

, title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=Old Applegate, in the stern, just set and looked at me, and Lord James, amidship, waved both arms and kept hollering for help. I took a couple of everlasting big strokes and managed to grab hold of the skiff's rail, close to the stern.}}

(medicine) The loss of brain function arising when the blood supply to the brain is suddenly interrupted.

(obsolete) A sudden attack of any disease, especially when fatal; any sudden, severe affliction or calamity.

a stroke''' of apoplexy; the '''stroke of death

* Harte

At this one stroke the man looked dead in law.

(rowing) The rower who is nearest the stern of the boat.

(rowing) The oar nearest the stern of a boat, by which the other oars are guided.

(professional wrestling) Backstage influence.

(squash) A point awarded to a player in case of interference or obstruction by the opponent.

(sciences) An individual discharge of lightning.

A flash of lightning may be made up of several strokes . If they are separated by enough time for the eye to distinguish them, the lightning will appear to flicker.

(obsolete) The result or effect of a striking; injury or affliction; soreness.

* Bible, Isa. xxx. 26

in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound

An addition or amendment to a written composition; a touch.

to give some finishing strokes to an essay

(Addison)

A throb or beat, as of the heart.

(Tennyson)

(obsolete) Power; influence.

* Robynson (More's Utopia)

where money beareth all the stroke

* Dryden

He has a great stroke with the reader.

(obsolete) appetite

(Jonathan Swift)