Word.ws English Dictionary

strikes up

strikes up is the third-person singular simple present indicative of strike up.

Meaning of strike up

Verb

strike up (third-person singular simple present strikes up, present participle striking up, simple past struck up, past participle struck up or (rare or archaic) stricken up)

  1. (idiomatic, transitive) To start something with somebody else, such as a conversation or relationship.
    • To make him feel welcome, she struck up a conversation with the newly arrived guest.
  2. (ergative, idiomatic, intransitive) To start something, usually playing live music.
    • The band struck up and everyone started to dance.
  3. To raise (as sheet metal), in making dishes, pans, etc., by blows or pressure in a die.

Questions about strikes up

What is strikes up the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Strikes up is the third-person singular simple present indicative of strike up.

Words near strikes up in the dictionary

  1. strikes the colors
  2. strikes the iron while it's hot
  3. strikes the tent
  4. strikes through
  5. strikes twice
  6. strikes up
  7. strikes while the iron is hot
  8. strikeslip fault
  9. strikest
  10. strikesthrough
  11. striketh

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: strikes up (page history and authors); strike up (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.

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