strike off

present singular third person strikes off · participle present striking off · past struck off · participle past struck off · participle past stricken off

1. transitiveTo remove from a list or register.

   She struck off his name from the list.

   1. UKtransitiveusuallypassive voiceTo be forbidden from practicing in a regulated profession (medicine, law etc.) by virtue of being removed (usually for malpractice) from a statutory register required to practice that profession.

      The doctor was struck off the medical register for professional misconduct.

      5 more examples

      Dr. Steel Scott Struck Off the Medical Register

      1891 November 27, “Dr. Steel Scott Struck Off the Medical Register”, in Birmingham Evening Mail, page 2

      "From 1992, when Dr. Starkie's name was struck off the medical register, he has been practicing—and he is entitled to do so. His name coming off the register has not made him unqualified[…]"

      1929 December 2, “Efforts to Get Back on Register.”, in Evening Standard, page 12

      Andrew Wakefield, the British gastroenterologist who sparked a worldwide scare over the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, has been found guilty of serious professional misconduct and struck off the medical register by the General Medical Council.

      2010 May 24, “Wakefield is struck off for the “serious and wide-ranging findings against him””, in British Medical Journal, volume 340

      The short answer is that I took a job, with a platonic male friend, as resident porn critics for The Erotic Review magazine, literary Middle England's answer to Razzle. It was only meant to be a bit of fun—writing earnest critiques about what motivates this gardener or why that naughty doctor isn't struck off—but it soon turned to boredom, frustration and occasionally disgust.

      2012 April 12, Victoria Coren, “I made a porn film for my 30th”, in Evening Standard, London

      Prosecutors said Flora Mendes had already been struck off in 2015 after being found guilty of providing unregulated immigration advice.

      2024 May 4, Alex Pope, “Struck-off lawyer jailed for Grenfell fraud”, in BBC News

2. datedtransitiveTo void an obligation; to deduct.

   He was kind enough to strike off the debt.

   1 more example

   But where's th'overseer now, to put um i'their reight places?—tardy,—tardy! always tardy. Odsbuddikins, I'll strike off a quarter of a day's wages fro' all that come nut at th'reight time,—I'll teach um.

   1770, “Act I, Scene ii”, in The Reapers: Or the Englishman Out Of Paris. An Opera, London: T. Carnan […] , page 11

3. transitiveTo print (a work) in a hurried manner.

   I'll strike off a copy for the subeditor later.

   1 more example

   Nothing is heard but the monotonous houp! hank! of the Indians, as in a cloud of steam of their own manufacture, they strike off the paper. Nothing can be seen without but a shower of quarters, bits, and dimes darkening the air as they are thrown from the purchasers.

   1856, George Derby [writing as John Phoenix], Phœnixiana; or, Sketches and Burlesques, New York: D. Appleton & Company, page 134

4. transitiveTo sever or separate by a blow.

   Strike off his head, I command you!

   3 more examples

   PITHIAS: […] That loues him better then his owne life, and will doo to his ende: / ake mee, Oh mightie Kinge, my lyfe I pawne for his, / Strike off my head, if Damon hap at his day to misse.

   1571, Richard Edwards, The Excellent Comedie Of Two the Moste Faithfullest Freendes, Damon and Pithias, London: Richard Ihones, page 825

   Captain: Convey him hence and on our longboat's side / Strike off his head.

   1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second 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 i]

   […] This my head / Should any stranger strike off, if starke dead

   1614–1615, Homer, “Certaine Ancient Greeke Epigrammes Translated”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses. […], London: […] Rich[ard] Field [and William Jaggard], for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615, →OCLC, page 246

5. intransitiveTo start going in a new direction or course of endeavor.

   She decided to strike off on a new course.

   4 more examples

   They both said, Robin was order'd to carry me to my Father's. And Mr. Colbrand was to leave me within ten Miles, and then strike off for the other House, and wait till my Master arriv'd there. They both spoke so solemnly, that I cannot but believe them.

   1741, [Samuel Richardson], Pamela: Or, Virtue Rewarded. […], 3rd edition, volume II, London: […] C[harles] Rivington, […]; and J. Osborn, […], →OCLC, page 37

   This is a country of great open spaces, amid which, in the neighbourhood of Dean, the rather remote looking single line to Fordingbridge and Wimborne strikes off to the south-west.

   1952 February, R. A. H. Weight, “A Railway Recorder in Wessex”, in Railway Magazine, page 130

   On the other hand, it may well have been his very familiarity with the work his predecessors had already done in this field, Schubert's and Bruckner's in particular, that encouraged him to strike off on a new line of his own; one must always bear in mind that Mahler lived at the end of a great musical tradition and was obliged to innovate, to assert his originality, if he was to survive as an independent voice.

   2003, Donald Mitchell, Paul Banks, David Matthews, Gustav Mahler: The Early Years, page 208

   Instead of the middle course which had been followed by previous statesmen, he struck off on a new line, veering well to starboard, and avoiding the cranks, the experts and the sentimentalists on the port side.

   2010, Harold Nicolson, Why Britain is at War