Strike - Definition and Overview

Strike has many meanings:

• A strike is a deliberate absence from work. See strike action.
• A strike is an unarmed attack with hand, arm or elbow in order to cause harm to an opponent. See strike (attack).
• Strike is the generic name for a blunt, crushing attack made with or without a weapon. Striking weapons include the club, the mace and the war hammer and is probably the oldest category of weapons known to humans.
• A military strike is a limited attack on a specified target.
• The strike of a geological unit is the compass direction along the plane of the unit where the unit has zero dip. As any surface that is not horizontal will have two such directions, convention states that the direction of strike is taken as anti-clockwise from the dip-direction.
• In baseball, a strike is a mark against a batter, three of which will cause him to strikeout. See strike (baseball statistics).
• In bowling, a strike occurs when players knock down all the pins with their first ball of a frame.
• In cricket, a batsman is on strike when facing the bowler.