strength

plural strengths

1. countableuncountableThe quality or degree of being strong.

   It requires great strength to lift heavy objects.

   2 more examples

   Our castle’s strength will laugh a siege to scorn.

   c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene v]

   He was thinking; but the glory of the song, the swell from the great organ, the clustered lights, […], the height and vastness of this noble fane, its antiquity and its strength—all these things seemed to have their part as causes of the thrilling emotion that accompanied his thoughts.

   1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

   Antonyms: weakness

2. countableuncountableThe intensity of a force or power; potency.

   He had the strength of ten men.

   1 more example

   Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.

   1699, William Temple, Heads designed for an essay on conversations

3. countableuncountableThe strongest part of something; that on which confidence or reliance is based.

   God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 46:1

   1 more example

   […] certainly there is not in the world a greater strength against temptations, then is deposited in an obedient understanding […].

   1649, Jeremy Taylor, The Great Examplar of Sanctity and Holy Life according to the Christian Institution, London: Francis Ash, Part 1, Section 4, Discourse 2, p. 66

4. countableuncountableA positive attribute.

   to play to one's strengths

   3 more examples

   We all have our own strengths and weaknesses.

   The compulsion to expose, renegotiate, or reinvent the strengths and weaknesses of dance tradition offers little in its final outcome to attract the average dance-goer.

   2013, Deborah Hay, My Body, The Buddhist, →ISBN, page 78

   Career diplomat Conrad Tribble said on Twitter that multiculturalism “is one of our greatest strengths as a country, and I go to that well often as an American diplomat. It’s hard to overstate the global soft power impact of America’s cultural diversity.”

   2021 January 19, Jennifer Hansler, Kylie Atwood and Nicole Gaouette, “Pompeo attacks multiculturalism, saying it is ‘not who America is’”, in CNN, archived from the original on 18 Jun 2021

   Antonyms: weakness

5. countableobsoleteuncountableAn armed force, a body of troops.

   That done, dissever your united strengths, And part your mingled colours once again;

   c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]

   1 more example

   Thou princely leader of our English strength, Never so needful on the earth of France,

   1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]

6. countableobsoleteuncountableA strong place; a stronghold.

   All like himself rebellious, by whose aid This inaccessible high strength, the seat Of Deitie supream, us dispossest, He trusted to have seis’d […]

   1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 140-143

7. countableuncountablegraph theoryThe minimum ratio of the number of edges removed from a given graph to components created, over all possible removals.

present singular third person strengths · participle present strengthing · participle past strengthed · past strengthed

1. obsoleteTo strengthen (all senses).First known use 12th–17th c.

   In witnes wherof we haue cauſed this pꝛeſent wꝛiting to be ſtrengthed with the ſeal of our facultie[…]

   1550, Edward Halle, “King Henry the viij.”, in The Vnion of the Two Noble and Illuſtre Famelies of Lancaſtre and Yoꝛke, page 1271

   2 more examples

   ſtrengthed with all myght / thꝛowe hys gloꝛious power / vnto all pacience / and longe ſufferynge with ioyfulnes

   1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Colossians j:[11], folio cclviiii, verso

   Then ſhalt thow perceave what it meaneth that the power of this wretched monſtre / muſt be ſtrengthed / by anothers power and not by his awne.

   1529, John Frith, A piſtle to the Chriſten reader […]

   Synonyms: anneal, brace, consolidate, build up, confirm, corroborate, enstrengthen, fortify