1896 A. Morrison Child of Jago xxxiii. 308 Josh..forced the striking~box of the lock off its screws.

1890 F. S. Creswell Hockey 11 No goal can be scored unless the ball be hit by one of the attacking side from within the striking circle.

1906 Official Handbk. Hockey Assoc. 120 In front of each goal shall be drawn a white line 4 yds. long, parallel to, and 15 yds from, the goal line. This line shall be continued each way to meet the goal line by quarter-circles having the goal posts as centres. The space enclosed by these lines and the goal lines, including the lines themselves, shall be called the striking circle.

1961 F. C. Avis Sportsman's Gloss. 219/1 Striking circle, in Hockey the space immediately in front of goal, really a rough semi-circle, 15 yards from the goal line.

1751 B. Franklin Exper. & Observ. Electr. 62 A needle..will draw the fire from the scale silently at a much greater than the striking distance.

1769 B. Franklin Exper. & Observ. Electr. (new ed.) 481 The distance at which a body charged with this fluid will discharge itself suddenly, striking through the air into another body that is not..so highly charg'd, is different according to the quantity [etc.]... This distance, whatever it happens to be between any two bodies, is called their striking distance, as till they come within that distance of each other, no stroke will be made.

1804 T. Jefferson Writings (1830) IV. 20 While fortune then places us within striking distance, let us avail ourselves of it.

1870 Daily News 20 Dec. The north-westward movement of Chanzy brought him within striking distance of the German Corps at Chartres.

1892 T. O'C. Sloane Standard Electr. Dict. (1893) 496 Striking distance, the distance that separates two conductors charged with electricity of different potential, when a spark starts between them.

1863 Jrnl. Royal Agric. Soc. 24 i. 224 It may then be laid about 2 feet deep, and 6 inches of loose striking-earth spread upon it.

1881 W. W. Greener Gun & its Devel. 182 The various calculations respecting the striking force of rifles.

1917 T. E. Lawrence Lett. (1938) 230 Force 3 is our striking force (of perhaps 6,000 not bad men) and may be able to rush Deraat, or at least should cut off the garrison there.

1944 T. H. Wisdom Triumph over Tunisia xvii. 143 The function of what [Air Marshal] Coningham now called the Air Striking Force.

1965 J. A. Michener Source (1966) 793 The well-trained Jews of the Palmach—an abbreviation for the Plugat Machatz, ‘striking force’, organized in 1941 to resist the threatened German invasion.

1883 M. P. Bale Saw-mills 336 Striking gear, known also as belt gear, is an arrangement of levers for stopping or starting machinery by throwing the driving belt off or on the driving pulley.

1824 J. Mander Derbyshire Miners' Gloss. 70 Striking-house, a sheltered place where the Striker stands, either at the top or middle length of an engine.

1863 Jrnl. Royal Agric. Soc. 24 i. 221 In order to test the goodness of some yellow globe-seed,..I had ordered some to be..raised in a striking-house.

1817 Q. Rev. Oct. 217 Harpoons and striking-irons.

1578 in F. Collins Wills & Admin. Knaresborough Court Rolls (1902) I. 133 In the kitching..one striking knyfe, one flesh axe.

1901 J. Black Illustr. Carpenter & Builder Ser.: Home Handicrafts 15 In place of a pencil many prefer to mark the stuff across with a ‘striking knife’ (fig. 4) and try square.

1827 O. W. Roberts Narr. Voy. Central Amer. 57 The fishing Indians of the coast..use them as striking lines for securing turtle, &c.

1897 Outing 29 470/1 The striking-line ordinarily used on the coast is three-sixteenths, medium-laid, white cotton line.

1898 T. O'C. Sloane Standard Electr. Dict. (ed. 2) 622 Striking magnet (a) An electro-magnet used in an arc lamp to separate the carbons..so as to form or ‘strike’ the arc. (b) An electro-magnet used to ring a bell, by having a hammer attached to its armature.

1837 L. Hebert Engin. & Mech. Encycl. II. 108 The patentees cause this part [sc. the bolt] to drop into a notch in the striking plate after it has been elevated by passing over an inclined plane upon it.

1856 G. Price Treat. Fire & Thief-proof Deposit. 811 Spring locks are those in which the bolt locks itself out by coming in contact with the striking-plate.

a1877 E. H. Knight Pract. Dict. Mech. III. 2429/2 Striking-plate, the device by which the wooden centering of an arch is lowered when the arch is completed.

1913 Proc. Prehistoric Soc. E. Anglia 1912–13 1 iii. 311 The flaking..is of a very high order, dexterous vertical blows, with well-masked cones of percussion, and striking platforms being supplemented by the most regular and fine edge-work.

1949 K. P. Oakley Man the Tool-maker 25 Each blow is delivered obliquely downwards near the edge of some conveniently placed flattish area (the striking platform), usually the scar of a flake previously struck off.

1977 L. L. Johnson in Hill & Gunn Individual in Prehistory x. 218 Collapsed platforms were noted only where there was no retouch on the striking platform.

1805 R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. I. 470 In some parts of Kent..an implement is often employed which they term a striking plough, by which little drills or channels are formed in the ground for the reception of the seed, about ten inches distant from each other.

1961 K. S. Most How to make Money on Stock Exch. iii. 35 Suppose I have a..well-founded belief that Woolworths' shares are going to rise in price..I shall have to pay out £335 plus purchase costs for every 100 shares. I may not have this money available..so I arrange to give the price of a call option, say, 5s. per share, for the right to buy 100 Woolworths' shares at any time during the next twelve weeks at a price of, say, 66s., being the ‘striking price’ at the end of the previous Account.

1973 N. Searle Successful Investments 85 Striking price, the price at which the holder of an option has the right to effect a purchase or sale.

1982 Times 9 Nov. 19 With a tender offer for sale, investors tender at the price they are prepared to pay. The issuing house works down the list to the lowest price at which the issue is totally subscribed. This becomes the ‘striking price’.

1875 A. J. Ellis tr. H. L. F. von Helmholtz On Sensations of Tone App. 712 The harshness of the striking reed is obviated in the English method of voicing.

1814 C. Jones Hoyle's Games Improved (new ed.) 378 [Billiards.] In stringing, the striker must place his ball within the striking ring.

1830 G. R. Porter Nature & Properties Sugar Cane vii. 83 The cane liquor..is transferred to the third boiler, and so on to the last,..which is called the striking teache.

1918 E. S. Farrow Dict. Mil. Terms s.v. With direct fire trajectory, the striking velocity is practically always less than that of any other point in the trajectory.

1677 London Gaz. No. 1192/4 The Dolphin of Ostend,..a striking Top-mast, a square Stern, and an open Vessel.

1861 S. Smiles Lives Engineers II. 270 Coasters and even colliers, with striking masts, might then be able to navigate the whole extent of the City westward.

1894 Westm. Gaz. 11 June 3/2 Presently some men come in, with..the badge of the striking cabby..pinned on their coats.

1898 H. E. Hamblen Gen. Manager's Story xiv. 229 No striking employee would be allowed to trespass on the company's property during the continuance of the strike.

1818 in H. J. Todd Johnson's Dict. Eng. Lang.

1839 Fraser's Mag. 20 701 If strikingness of character be at all an object worth attending to.

1889 Spectator 28 Dec. 914/2 Oratorical power, be it eloquence, as with Mr. Gladstone, or strikingness of phrase, as with Lord Beaconsfield.