strake

[ streyk ]

noun

1. Nautical. a continuous course of planks or plates on a ship forming a hull shell, deck, etc.

strake

/ streɪk /

noun

1. 1. a curved metal plate forming part of the metal rim on a wooden wheel
   2. any metal plate let into a rubber tyre
2. Also calledstreak nautical one of a continuous range of planks or plates forming the side of a vessel
3. a profiled piece of wood carried on an arm that rotates round a fixed post: used to sweep the internal shape of a mould, as for a bell or a ship's propeller blade, in sand or loam

Other Words From

• straked adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of strake¹

1300–50; Middle English; apparently akin to stretch

Word History and Origins

Origin of strake¹

C14: related to Old English streccan to stretch

Example Sentences

Technical details haven’t been specified, but Hyundai said the stylish strakes along the bottom of the vehicle are functional, integrating the air intakes and retractable side steps.

From Fox News

No matter where you were on the ship, you felt the power of the Olympic's twenty-nine boilers transmitted upward through the strakes of the hull.

From Literature

Though the Crepuscule was armed with but sixteen guns, the noise of their detonation was great, and as we labored to stand in the darkness, cannon blasts quaked the whole ship from strake to stringer.

From Literature

But the exhibit quickly jumped to flashier models, like a 1984 Testarossa with its side strakes and horizontal design elements that make it look impossibly low and wide.

From New York Times

And it is even, actually, handsome, with the masculine, single-frame grille up front and lovely strakes of chrome at the rocker panels.

From Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• smear