to strike up
23
3.8
- phrasal verb
- /straɪk ʌp/
- She decided to strike up a conversation with her new neighbor over coffee.
- strike up a conversation
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Watch on YouTubeAnd so we struck up a correspondence.
- And so we struck up a correspondence.
- And we kind of struck up a friendship and evolved into a relationship.
- Oh, so they struck up this kinship based on on that, you know.
- Such relationships included intellectual friendships, the kind that nourished us both, often struck up across borders.
- To this day, the only people I strike up conversations with at airports are people that I think look like Yoda.
- And, and we just struck up this friendship and Terry was like, he just, he paid an interest to me and that, that he wanted to help me.
- It's, it's makes you somebody that people can relate to something, strike up a conversation about something other than the Catholic Church.
Examples
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I went into a bar in New Jersey, struck up a conversation with a guy.
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Don't be shy about actually striking up conversations with these people either.
Academic text (2014) -
So, in your job, you sit down, strike up a conversation.
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So we strike up a conversation or whatever.
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We struck up a conversation with them.
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I was too shy to strike up a conversation with anyone.
Fiction book (2000) -
You have to strike up a conversation with a stranger who is sitting near you during the commute.
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A traveling salesman from Omaha tried to strike up a conversation with her.
Fiction book (1991) -
While Zora and Arthur were having their discussion, Louis and I struck up a conversation.
Academic text (1990) -
At what degree of loneliness does one strike up conversations with strangers in the checkout line?
Fiction book (1997)
Synonyms
24
7.8
Talk to someone in a friendly way to try to start a romantic relationship
12
3.0
Start talking to someone you do not know well
How Formal
Surface Forms
Morphology
strike + up
The meaning 'to begin to play music or start singing' is directly derivable from 'strike' (to produce a sound by hitting) plus the particle 'up' which commonly signals the beginning or initiation of an action. This verb+particle composition follows a standard, cross-linguistic pattern (e.g. 'start' + noun) and would be understandable to a B1 learner who knows the constituent words.
Etymology
Strike up comes from the image of strike and up — like striking a match 'up' to make a light and start a fire. So to strike up a conversation or friendship means to 'begin' it quickly.