strake

• IPA^(key): /ˈstɹeɪk/

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• Rhymes: -eɪk

From Middle English strake, from Old English *straca (> Anglo-Latin straca), from Proto-West Germanic *strakō, from Proto-Germanic *strakaz (“straight”). Akin to Old English streċċan (“to make straight, stretch”).

strake (plural strakes)

1. (obsolete) An iron fitting of a medieval cart wheel.
   • 1866, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 1, page 544:

     The separate pieces of iron, forming together the fitting of the wheel, are called strakes, and the great nails by which they are fastened to the woodwork, and which had thick projecting heads, are called strake-nails and occasionally, it seems, cart-nails, great nails, or frets.

   Synonyms: box, bushel

2. (aviation) A type of aerodynamic surface mounted on an aircraft fuselage to fine-tune the airflow.
3. (nautical) A continuous line of plates or planks running from bow to stern that contributes to a vessel's skin. (FM 55-501).
   • 1884, Dixon Kemp, A Manual of Yacht and Boat Sailing (Fourth Edition), page 13-14:

     With regard to materials, all the frames should be of oak and so should the stem piece, stern post, upper portion of dead woods, knight heads, apron, beams, shelf clamp, bilge strakes, and keelson; the keel will generally be found to be either English or American elm. The garboard strakes are generally of American elm, and it is best that the planking above should be of American elm or oak to within a foot or so of the load water-line, and teak above to the covering board or deck edge.

   • 2003, Erik Larson, “Prologue: Aboard the Olympic”, in The Devil in the White City, Vintage Books, page 6:

     You felt the power of the Olympic's twenty-nine boilers transmitted upward through the strakes of the hull.

4. (engineering) A shaped piece of wood used to level a bed or contour the shape of a mould, as for a bell
5. A trough for washing broken ore, gravel, or sand; a launder.
6. (obsolete) A streak.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Genesis 30:37:

     And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chesnut^[sic] tree; and pilled white strakes in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods.

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938:

     His burning eyen, whom bloody strakes did staine

• (nautical): The planks or plates next to the keel are called the garboard strakes; the next, or the heavy strakes at the bilge, are the bilge strakes; the next, from the water line to the lower portsills, the wales; and the upper parts of the sides, the sheer strakes.

strake (third-person singular simple present strakes, present participle straking, simple past and past participle straked)

1. (obsolete) To stretch.

strake

1. (obsolete) simple past tense of strike
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, stanza 32:

     Hayle Groome; didst not thou see a bleeding Hind, / Whose right haunch earst my stedfast arrow strake?

   • a. 1587, Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the page number)”, in Fulke Greville, Matthew Gwinne, and John Florio, editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, OCLC 801077108; republished in Albert Feuillerat, editor, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia (Cambridge English Classics: The Complete Works of Sir Philip Sidney; I), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1912, OCLC 318419127:

     But, when he strake — which came so thick as if every blow would strive to be foremost — his arm seemed still a postillion of death.

   • c. 1590-1599', Arthur Gorges, Eglantine of Meryfleur

     But when of Eglantine he spake, / His strings melodiously he strake.

• Akters, Kaster, Krastë, Skater, Staker, Starke, Tasker, retask, sakret, skater, staker, streak, takers, tasker, trakes

From Old English *strāc.

strake

1. Alternative form of stroke

From Old English strācian.

strake

1. Alternative form of stroken

strake

1. definite singular of strak
2. plural of strak

strake f

1. dative/locative singular of straka