1942 Amer. Cinematographer Sept. 422/3 Adjust the speed of the projector until the bars on the ‘strobe’ band corresponding to the number of blades in the projector shutter appear to stand still.

1949 H. Luray Strobe viii. 110 (caption) A classic strobe shot. Drop of milk splashing on a plate covered by a thin layer of milk.

1962 Amer. Jrnl. Physics 30 925/2 Strobe photography is an area that has not been saturated at science fairs.

1966 McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. (rev. ed.) XIII. 187/1 Stroboscopic or ‘strobe’ photography is generally understood to refer to pictures of both single and multiple exposure taken by flashes of light from electrical discharges.

1978 Oceans May–June 39/1 Flash bulbs or strobe (electronic flash) lighting is often used to restore lost colors and provide light for an exposure.

1942 Amer. Cinematographer Sept. 423/1 Watch the strobe for any changes in projector speed.

1946 Jrnl. Inst. Electr. Engineers 93 iiia. 319/1 In the A.I. Mark IV [radar] equipment, the search was a progressive outward movement of the strobe from zero to maximum range, followed by a rapid fly-back to zero.

1953 Electronic Engin. 25 191/1 Photographing a c.r.o. trace using a reference waveform as a strobe.

1959 Electronic Engin. 31 136/2 The X displacement may be dissociated from the phase of the strobe (time scale).

1980 D. G. Green Digital Techniques & Syst. iv. 49 The strobe determines the times at which the S and R input signals should be effective.

1942 Amer. Cinematographer Sept. 423/1 Check the strobe disc for synchronization.

1967 Nature 23 Dec. 1173/1 The correct speed of a gramophone turn-table may be checked by viewing a strobe disk illuminated by electric light supplied by the a.c. mains.

1974 Sci. Amer. Aug. 108/3 The solution of the problem of stopping fast action lies in an electronic flash lamp. The duration of most ‘strobe’ lamps owned by amateurs is about 5 × 10⁻⁴ second, which is sufficiently brief for many events of interest.

1975 Gramophone Jan. 1297 (advt.) Dots on the outer rim of the SR717 illuminated by the built-in strobe lamp.

1962 N. Maxwell Witch-doctor's Apprentice vi. 68 Augusto helped a lot, lugging the Strobe light and holding his flashlight so that I could check my camera settings.

1971 R. Busby Deadlock vii. 98 Pulsating strobe lights left Leric with a fragmented picture of girls.

1978 Sci. Amer. June 128/1 My best clue came from examining the floating drops under a strobe light set near the frequency of oscillation, so that the flashing light effectively slowed the vibration of the drops.

1979 Listener 18 Oct. 517/3 A strobe-lighted production number that sends images flashing around the vast auditorium.

1967 P. Welles Babyhip ii. 36 It's not everyone who can have a strob-lit [sic] dream of love.

1972 Listener 23 June 845/1 Weird strobe-lit collages.

1946 Jrnl. Inst. Electr. Engineers 93 iiia. 318/2 The operator had under his control a variable-range strobe pulse which he could bring into coincidence with the target echo.

1967 Electronics 6 Mar. 117/1 (caption) The level detector senses the moment when C_int reaches zero volts and generates a strobe pulse.

1971 Gloss. Electrotechnical, Power Terms (B.S.I.) iii. vi. 18 Strobe pulse, a pulse, of duration less than the period of a recurrent phenomenon, used for scrutinizing a particular epoch of that phenomenon... In radar, a strobe pulse is sometimes made to follow automatically the echo from a moving object.

1947 Wireless World Aug. 290/1 Work was also carried out on ‘strobing’ a portion of the time base.

1950 J. L. Lawson & G. E. Uhlenbeck Threshold Signals ix. 253 In the aural method of detection one usually gates or strobes the incoming signals.

1981 L. Nashelsky & R. L. Boylestad Devices xi. 391 The output remains high unless strobed.

1959 J. Halas & R. Manvell Technique Film Animation xix. 232 Fairly light colours do not strobe so much as white.

1965 Punch 12 May 684/1 Before my very first TV appearance the studio manager tried to get me to change clothes with him... He then explained that the black and white check I was wearing would ‘strobe’—an optical illusion whereby the wearer of any pattern containing vertical or horizontal stripes appears to vibrate.

1982 Observer 12 Dec. 26/3 Don't blink, don't sniff, don't stick your chin up, don't slouch, don't wave your hands about, don't wear stripes (they ‘strobe’), look at the person you're talking to, smile.

1977 R. E. Harrington Quintain vi. 53 Possible explanations flashed through his mind..thoughts strobing across his mind.

1980 J. McNeil Spy Game ix. 103 The fire strobed rosy light onto the burnished yew furniture.

1980 D. G. Green Digital Techniques & Syst. iv. 49 A clocked or strobed flip-flop will change only when a clock pulse is received.