handstroke
(ˈhændstrəʊk)
Also handi-, handystroke.
[f. hand n. + stroke. For the variant handistroke, handy stroke, cf. hand-blow and handy a.]
† 1. A stroke or blow with the hand. to come to handstrokes (handy strokes), to come to blows or hand-to-hand fighting. So to be at handstrokes, etc.
| α 1523 Ld. Berners Froiss. I. xx. 30 They shulde soone assemble to gether to fyght at hande strokes. 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VI, 90 After thei came to hande strokes: greate was the fight. 1625–6 Purchas Pilgrims ii. 1486 Immediately we came to handstrokes. c 1840 Manning Let. to Archdeacon Hare in Purcell Life (ed. 4) I. 163 Till I can come, as Hobbes says, to handstrokes with you. |
| β 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. V, 50 When thei came to handystrokes. 1589 Disc. Voy. Spaine & Port. (1881) 104 Having beaten an Enemie at handie strokes. 1602 Hist. Eng. in Harl. Misc. (Malh.) II. 455 To..bring the matter to handy strokes. 1692 R. L'Estrange Josephus, Wars iii. xix. (1733) 687 Provoking them to handy Strokes. |
2. attrib. (See
quot.)
| 1880 C. A. W. Troyte in Grove Dict. Mus. I. 219/2 [The bell] would in swinging past that point raise the rope; this gives the ringer a second pull..and this is called the ‘handstroke’ pull. |