Meaning of ten-strike | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A strike; the knocking down of all ten pins with one delivery of the ball.
   dated
2. Any quick, decisive stroke or act.
   US, dated, informal
3. A perfectly chosen word or phrase; an exact bit of wording that “solves” a problem (especially in adapting or drafting principles, slogans, or statements).
   slang

Examples

“I started to tell him I warn't studying Jeff Middleton, but jest then a lot of whooping bust out in the bowling alley like somebody had made a ten-strike or something, and here come six men busting into the bar whooping and yelling and slapping one of 'em on the back.”

“At his lowest ebb, when his black suit was in pawn, he made a ten-strike—or so it seemed to him—in a prize contest arranged by the County Committee of the Republican Party. There were three branches of the contest, and he entered them all, laughing at himself bitterly the while in that he was driven to such straits to live.”

“GREYE LA SPINA werewolf serial, Invaders From the Dark, seems to have scored a ten-strike with the readers of Weird Tales, to judge by the letters that have poured in to The Eyrie”

“...when the founders of Narcotics Anonymous ... made a tenstrike ... from “powerless over drugs” to “powerless over our addiction”.”

CEFR level