strike up


verb(adverb)
  1. (of a band, orchestra, etc) to begin to play or sing

  2. (tr) to bring about; cause to begin: to strike up a friendship

  1. (tr) to emboss (patterns, etc) on (metal)

Words Nearby strike up

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

How to use strike up in a sentence

  • On this the royal band of music would strike up its liveliest airs, and a great bell would toll its evening warning.

    Our Little Korean Cousin | H. Lee M. Pike
  • What really brought our party into this country, though, was a report of a rich strike up above.

  • But it was one thing to strike up an acquaintanceship in Liverpool, and quite another to continue that acquaintanceship elsewhere.

    Mushroom Town | Oliver Onions
  • One went to a spinet which stood at the end of the room, and another brought in a violin and began to strike up a dancing air.

    Hurricane Hurry | W.H.G. Kingston
  • In that case he had only to strike up a few airs and it was all up with the poor Colus.