strake

/ˈstɹeɪk/

strake noun: an iron fitting of a traditional wooden wheel, such as a hub component or bearing (e.g., box, bushel), a cleat, or a rim covering. Also the simple past of strike.

Noun

strake (plural strakes)

(archaic) An iron fitting of a traditional wooden wheel, such as a hub component or bearing (e.g., box, bushel), a cleat, or a rim covering.
- The separate pieces of iron, forming together the fitting of the wheel, are called strakes, and the great nails by which they are fastened to the woodwork, and which had thick projecting heads, are called strake-nails and occasionally, it seems, cart-nails, great nails, or frets.1866, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 1, page 544
- Iron strakes were the separate plates fitted to a cart wheel before the use of the iron ring or tyre. [Evans was glossing the term as encountered in a ledger entry of 1827.]1971, George Ewart Evans, Tools of Their Trades: An Oral History of Men at Work c. 1900, Taplinger Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 42
A type of aerodynamic surface mounted on an aircraft fuselage to fine-tune the airflow.
Also used more generally to regulate fluid flow in pipes or vents to prevent turbulence or vortexes.
A continuous line of plates or planks running from bow to stern that contributes to a vessel's skin. (FM 55-501).
- With regard to materials, all the frames should be of oak and so should the stem piece, stern post, upper portion of dead woods, knight heads, apron, beams, shelf clamp, bilge strakes, and keelson; the keel will generally be found to be either English or American elm. The garboard strakes are...1884, Dixon Kemp, A Manual of Yacht and Boat Sailing (Fourth Edition), pages 13–14
- But only last night a telephone call roused Mr. Tulloch from his bed—a sheer-strake gone; how long for repairs?1960 June, James Kinross, “A Day in the Life of a Port Superintendent”, in Railway Magazine, page 421
A shaped piece of wood used to level a bed or contour the shape of a mould, as for a bell
A trough for washing broken ore, gravel, or sand; a launder.
(obsolete) A streak.
- And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chesnut^([sic]) tree; and pilled white strakes in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 30:37
- His burning eyen, whom bloody strakes did staine1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

Verb

strake (third-person singular simple present strakes, present participle straking, simple past and past participle straked)

(obsolete, transitive) To stretch.

Also used as

strake is also the simple past of strike.

Forms of strake

Noun
plural	strakes
Verb
third-person singular present	strakes
present participle	straking
past participle	straked
past	straked

Origin of strake

From Middle English strake, from Old English *straca (> Anglo-Latin straca), from Proto-West Germanic *strakō, from Proto-Germanic *strakaz (“straight”). Akin to Old English streċċan (“to make straight, stretch”).

Words formed from strake

Words that rhyme with strake

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about strake

What does strake mean?: Strake means an iron fitting of a traditional wooden wheel, such as a hub component or bearing (e.g., box, bushel), a cleat, or a rim covering.
What part of speech is strake?: Strake can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce strake?: Strake is pronounced /ˈstɹeɪk/.
What is the plural of strake?: The plural of strake is strakes.

Words near strake in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: strake (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-strake.wav.

Cite this entry: “strake.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/strake. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.