Meaning of by-stroke | Babel Free

Definitions

1. An incidental or slyly given stroke; a gratuitous addition or indirect action.
2. A secondary attack.

Examples

“But we do not suppose the House of Commons will quite surrender its authority to them on a point of such importance, or allow its intentions to be frustrated by a by-stroke of the Commissioners, without further inquiry.”

“The text before us furnishes an example of the manner in which he is wont to convey this doctrine to the minds of his people, even where he is not immediately employed on it—by a by-stroke, as it were .”

“Still, in doing this, he has not unfrequently found himself, as it were, wielding the sword in one hand, while grasping the trowel in the other—though strengthening his own position, and making that his aim, yet at the same time, by a kind of bystroke, rebutting an enemy's blow as well.”

“These persons are selected, for a by-stroke of satire, as drunken and riotous paupers .”

“Then followed an ingeniously slighting reference to "the large increase, during November, in the coruscation of eloquence which has been flashed upon appreciative audiences through the provinces of our native land";—a by-stroke at our noble selves, carefully meant to soothe French ears and smooth the way for what was to come.”

“Financier as he was, he felt it was not right by a by-stroke or side-wind to alter what is a matter of high constitutional practice.”

“We must be content to signalize a by-stroke of sympathetic delicacy.”

“The thesis, brilliantly builded on a mere side glance—a by- stroke of the Apostle's pen in the midst of his great argument on justification by faith—that the Judaizers in Galatia subsequent to the Council demanded circumcision, not for pardon, but for perfection, if fully valid would not alter the situation by a hair's-breadth .”

“The carriage of Lord Wilsdown rattled swiftly up to the door of Prince de Rosenberg's house in Park-lane, and the footman springing nimbly to the ground, produced a roll of thunder from the knocker, that would have done credit to a by-stroke of the cloud compelling Zeus .”

“On his way he could not resist the temptation of dealing a by-stroke at the Petchenegans.”

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