streak
pronunciation
How to pronounce streak in British English:
UK [striːk]
How to pronounce streak in American English:
US [striːk]
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- Noun:
- an unbroken series of events
- a distinctive characteristic
- a marking of a different color or texture from the background
- a sudden flash (as of lightning)
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- Verb:
- move quickly in a straight line
- run naked in a public place
- mark with spots or blotches of different color or shades of color as if stained
Word Origin
- streak
- streak: [OE] Streak and strike are closely related. Both come from a prehistoric Germanic base *strik-, denoting ‘touch lightly’. But whereas the connotations of strike have become more violent, streak has moved semantically from the action to the effect it produced on a surface. Originally, in the Old English period, it denoted simply a ‘mark’, but by the 16th century it had narrowed down to a long thin mark. The use of the verb streak for ‘run naked through a public place’ dates from the early 1970s.=> strike
- streak (n.)
- Old English strica "line of motion, stroke of a pen" (related to strican "pass over lightly"), from Proto-Germanic *strikon- (cognates: Middle Dutch streke, Dutch streek, Middle Low German streke "a stroke, line," Old High German, German strich, Gothic striks "a stroke, line"), from PIE root *streig- "to stroke, rub, press" (see strigil; also strike (v.), stroke (v.)). Sense of "long, thin mark" is first found 1560s. Meaning "a temporary run (of luck)" is from 1843.
- streak (v.2)
- 1768, "to go quickly, to rush, run at full speed," respelling (probably by association with streak (v.1)) of streek "to go quickly" (late 14c.), originally "to stretch oneself" (mid-13c.), a northern Middle English variant of stretch (v.). Related: Streaked; streaking.
- streak (v.1)
- "make streaks on" (transitive), 1590s, from streak (n.). Intransitive sense of "become streaked" is from 1870. Related: Streaked; streaking.
Example
- 1. Mr cameron has his own pragmatic streak , allies say .
- 2. Between the clouds , however , a silvery-gray streak of oil remained visible offshore of the mississippi river delta .
- 3. He was apparently trying to win a reward from british billionaire alki david , who offered $ 1 million to the first person to streak at an obama rally while advertising his video-sharing website .
- 4. But a brutal streak went with it .
- 5. In office as prime minister he has displayed an authoritarian streak .