to stroke out
1
6.2
- phrasal verb
- The teacher asked us to stroke out the mistakes before submitting our papers.
Examples
-
Please stroke out any outdated information in the document.
-
You're not gonna stroke out on me, are you?
-
If I stroke out here, tell the doc what happened and send my regrets.
Fiction book (1991) -
I need to stroke out the incorrect answers on this sheet.
Synonyms
35
1.8
To draw a line through an item on a list to show it is finished
14
2.3
Draw a line through a word or item to show it should be removed
8
3.7
Remove a name or item from a list by drawing a line through it
4
4.0
Draw lines through writing so you cannot read it
To cross out writing by drawing an X over it
To mark an item as finished by drawing a line or writing a note
Antonyms
How Removed
Surface Forms
Morphology
stroke + out
The meaning is directly compositional: 'stroke' denotes a mark or motion made by a pen and 'out' conveys exclusion or removal, so combined they describe making a mark through text to delete it. This editing sense follows regular English particle-verb composition and has clear cross-linguistic parallels (e.g. 'mark out', 'line through'), so a B1 learner who knows the constituents would likely infer the meaning.
Etymology
The phrasal verb stroke out comes from the simple action of drawing a line through words with a pen; a stroke is a single pen movement and out shows the words are taken away, so it means 'to delete or ignore'.