stridulous (stridulus)

[ To make them [the old men] garrulous, as gra hoppers are stridulous . Chapman , Iliad, iii., Commentary. Stridulous angina. Same as laryngismus stridulus (which see, under laryngismus ). striet, v . t . A Middle English form of strew . strife (str if), n. [ str if , estrif , strith , strife, contention, pain, grief, = Sw. Dan. strid , combat, contention, = OS. OFries. strid = D. strijd = OHG. MHG. str it , G. streit , strife, = OL. stlis (gen. stlit- ), L. lis ( lit- ), strife, litigation (see litigate ); from the verb, Icel. stridha , strive, contend, etc.: see stride. Cf. strive.] 1. A striving or effort to do one's best; earnest attempt or endeavor. With strife to please you, day exceeding day. Shak., All's Well, Epil. 2. Emulative contention or rivalry; active struggle for superiority; emulation. Weep with equal strife Who should weep most. Shak., Lucrece, 1. 1791. Thus gods contended (noble strife, Worthy the heavenly mind!) Who most should do to soften anxious life. Congreve, To the Earl of Go dolphin. 3. Antagonistic contention; contention characterized by anger or enmity; discord; conflict; quarrel: as, strife of the elements. Sith for me ye fight, to me this grace Both yield, to stay your deadly strufe a space. Spenser, F. Q., IL. vi. 33. Twenty of them fought in this black strife . Shak ., R. and J., iii. 1. 188. To take strifet, to enter into conflict. For which he took with Rome and Cesar stryf . Chaucer, Good Women, L. 595. =Syn. 2 and 3. Strife, Contention. These words agree in being very general, in having a good sense po ible, and in seeming elevated or poetical when applied to the organized quarrels of war or to anything more than oral disputes. Strife is the stronger. Contention often indicates the more continued and methodical effort, and hence is more often the word for rivalry in effort to pos se something. Such a rivalry, when definite in form and limited in time, is a contest : as, the contests of the Greek games. A contention that is forcible, violent, exhausting, or attended with real or figurative convulsions or contortions, is a struggle . See battlel, encounter. strifeful (str if'ful), a. [ strife + -ful.] Full of strife; contentious; discordant. But stryfull mind and diverse qualitee Drew them in partes, and each made others foe. Spenser, F. Q., II. ii. 13. strig (strig), n. [Origin obscure.] 1. The footstalk of a flower, leaf, or fruit. Ure , Dict., I. 302.-2. The tang of a sword-blade. See tang .