- a period of time when an organized group of employees of a company stops working because of an argument over pay or conditions
- the miners'/firefighters'/teachers' strike
- a strike by teachers
- a one-day strike
- an unofficial strike
- Union leaders called a strike.
- Air traffic controllers are threatening to go on strike.
- Half the workforce are now (out) on strike.
- to come out on strike
- The train drivers have voted to take strike action.
- The student union has called for a rent strike (= a refusal to pay rent as a protest).
Extra ExamplesTopics Working lifeb2, Social issuesb2- More train strikes are threatened.
- The New York transit strike is in its second day.
- The army was used to help break the strike.
- The new government banned strikes.
- The shipyard voted to launch a sympathy strike in support of the machinists.
- The strike paralysed the port.
- The first wave of strikes began in January.
- Miners staged a one-day strike in support of the steel workers.
- The union held a national strike ballot on the issue.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- long
- short
- one-day
- …
- series
- wave
- be on
- come out on
- go on
- …
- occur
- take place
- start
- …
- action
- threat
- ballot
- …
- during a/the strike
- strike against
- strike by
- …
- a ballot for a strike
- a ballot for strike action
- the threat of strikes
- …
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- a military attack, especially by aircraft dropping bombs
- They decided to launch a pre-emptive strike.
- strike against somebody/something Diplomatic efforts have averted a military strike against the country.
- The President ordered missile strikes against them in retaliation for the earlier bombing.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- air
- missile
- nuclear
- …
- carry out
- launch
- make
- …
- force
- aircraft
- in a/the strike
- strike against
- strike on
- …
- [usually singular] an act of hitting or kicking something/somebody
- His spectacular strike in the second half made the score 2–0.
- an unsuccessful attempt to hit the ballTopics Sports: ball and racket sportsc1
- a situation in tenpin bowling when a player knocks down all the pins with the first ball
- [usually singular] a sudden discovery of something valuable, especially oilOxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective
- air
- missile
- nuclear
- …
- carry out
- launch
- make
- …
- force
- aircraft
- in a/the strike
- strike against
- strike on
- …
- strike (against somebody/something) (North American English) a bad thing or action that damages somebody/something’s reputation
- The amount of fuel that this car uses is a big strike against it.
of workers
attack
hitting/kicking
in baseball
in bowling
discovery of oil
bad thing/action
Word OriginOld English strīcan ‘go, flow’ and ‘rub lightly’, of West Germanic origin; related to German streichen ‘to stroke’, also to stroke. The sense ‘deliver a blow’ dates from Middle English.
Idioms
See strike in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee strike in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic Englishthree strikes and you’re out | the three strikes rule
- used to describe a law that says that people who commit three crimes will go straight to prison
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strike