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thrust

1. A violent push or driving, as with a pointed weapon moved in the direction of its length, or with the hand or foot, or with any instrument; a stab; a word much used as a term of fencing. [Polites] Pyrrhus with his lance pursues, And often reaches, and his thrusts renews. (Dryden)

2. An attack; an assault. One thrust at your pure, pretended mechanism. (dr. H. More)

3., a horizontal or diagonal outward pressure, as of an arch against its abutments, or of rafters against the wall which support them.

4. (Science: chemical) The breaking down of the roof of a gallery under its superincumbent weight. Thrust bearing, a bearing arranged to receive the thrust or endwise pressure of the screw shaft.

(Science: geology) Thrust plane, the surface along which dislocation has taken place in the case of a reversed fault.

Synonym: push, shove, assault, attack.

Thrust, push, Shove. Push and shove usually imply the application of force by a body already in contact with the body to be impelled. Thrust, often, but not always, implies the impulse or application of force by a body which is in motion before it reaches the body to be impelled.