Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An instrument used to level off grain or other material in a measure.
  • noun A foundry tool used to shape a mold in sand or loam.
  • noun A tool for sharpening scythes.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In founding, to sweep; form to a round surface by means of a templet or sweep.
  • noun A straight-edge used to sweep grain off level with the top of a measure when measuring grain.
  • noun A wooden swingle for dressing flax.
  • noun In carpentry and masonry, a pattern or template.
  • noun In founding: A straight-edge used to remove superfluous sand to a level with the top of a flask after ramming the sand into it. Compare loam-board.
  • noun A template or pattern used in sweeping patterns in sand or loam.
  • noun In cutlery, a straight-edge fed with emery, and employed to grind the edges of knives arranged spirally on a cylinder.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun An instrument to strike grain to a level with the measure; a strike.
  • noun An instrument for whetting scythes; a rifle.
  • noun (Founding) An instrument used for smoothing the surface of a core.
  • noun (Carp. & Mason.) A templet; a pattern.
  • noun Prov. Eng. An instrument used in dressing flax.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A rod used to level grain etc. when being measured
  • noun A tool for sharpening scythes
  • noun An instrument used for smoothing the surface of a core.
  • noun carpentry, masonry A templet; a pattern.
  • noun An instrument used in dressing flax.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an implement for sharpening scythes
  • noun a tool used in a foundry to shape a mold in sand
  • noun a tool or rod used to level off grain or other granular material that is heaped in a measure
  • verb level off with a strickle in a measuring container
  • verb smooth with a strickle

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English strikelle, perhaps from Old English stricel, teat, strickle; see streig- in Indo-European roots.]

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Examples

  • This mud pie is built up into the desired shape, supported by a metal base plate ( "strickle"), layer by painstaking layer.

    Cocktail Party Physics 2008

  • According to Dr. Webster "It is probably accurate to say that many fish such as minnous, strickle backs and guppies are capable of the same intelectual feats as rats or mice"

    Fish also Clever!!!! 2008

  • A strickle: a piece of wood used for striking off the surplus from a corn measure.

    The Dialect of the West of England; Particularly Somersetshire James Jennings

  • It would be superfluous to point out omissions like strickle, which would have helped explain struck measure (described under heaped measure, p. 165), or stylistic slips like sawed for sawn, so I shall control myself.

    VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol IX No 2 1982

Comments

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  • In Wales, a wooden hone shaped like a small cricket bat, used to sharpen scythe blades, was called a "ripe". Grades of sand and grit were used with mutton fat to put an edge on the blade suitable for the vegetation being cut - soft sand for hay, rough sand for corn, and fine pebbles for bracken. Over the border in Scotland, the strickle or ripe was called a straik. Source: British rural agricultural publication, The Countryman, Autumn 1957, p.571.

    November 5, 2009

  • The crofter measures bushel and peck

    So landlord gets no extra speck.

    If the grain is too mickle

    He smites with his strickle

    Like claymore through a sassenach neck.

    December 9, 2014

  • Probably the origin of trickle.

    December 12, 2018