stricken

comparative more stricken · superlative most stricken · alternative obsolete striken

1. Struck by something.

   The town was stricken by a devastating earthquake that left many buildings in ruins.

2. Disabled or incapacitated by something.

   Services had to be diverted, damaged lines restored, and materials for coastal defence and relief supplies conveyed to the stricken areas with all possible speed.

   1953 April, “Flood Damage on British Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 217

   4 more examples

   Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.

   1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter III (Accessory After the Fact), page 382, column 1

   Given the perils for divers trying to enter the stricken submarine, the recovery effort is expected to focus on raising the vessel, a daunting challenge since the flooded weight of the Kursk is estimated at 25,000 tonnes.

   2000 August 22, Ian Traynor, “Crew found dead in stricken sub”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

   At about twenty past three in the afternoon, these aircraft duly began to arrive. The cruiser Northampton was towing Hornet at a stately five knots when, out of the sky, came seven torpedo-armed aircraft. They managed to miss the barely-moving Hornet with all but one drop... but one hit was really all that it took, the location causing additional damage to the stricken carrier and demolishing most of the repairs that had been made to the earlier damage.

   2021 February 3, Drachinifel, 20:43 from the start, in Guadalcanal Campaign - Santa Cruz (IJN 2 : 2 USN), archived from the original on 04 Dec 2022

   Ministry of Defence officials, who were managing small boats in the Channel at the time, told the Guardian in January that they disputed that the stricken dinghy had entered UK waters.

   2023 April 30, Diane Taylor, “Stricken dinghy was not rescued after it entered UK waters, maritime logs reveal”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

   1. governmentHaving its name removed from a country's naval register, e.g. the United States Naval Vessel Register.

alternative obsolete striken

1. participlepastpast participle of strike

   Nothing could be more business-like than the construction of the stout dams, and nothing more gently rural than the limpid lakes, with the grand old forest trees marshalled round their margins like a veteran army that had marched down to drink, only to be stricken motionless at the water’s edge.

   1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad