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Literary notes about Strut (AI summary)

The word strut appears in literature as a rich, multifaceted term that conveys both physical swagger and symbolic display. Often, it is used to describe a proud or ostentatious gait—characters are depicted strutting through halls with a showy demeanor [1] or parading like peacocks [2, 3] to underline their self-importance. At times, authors use the term humorously or critically to capture exaggerated bravado or to satirize societal pretensions [4, 5], while in some contexts it even assumes a more technical meaning, referring to a supporting element in structures [6, 7]. Overall, strut serves as a versatile device to animate characters and scenes by merging literal movement with figurative expressions of vanity and theatricality.
  1. By the three Kings, you strut here in my hall with jingling spurs which you have no right to wear.
    — from Tekla: A Romance of Love and War by Robert Barr
  2. Red-marked sheep that bleat so loudly Are his courtiers cross-bedight, Calves that strut before him proudly Seem each one a stalwart knight.
    — from The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 06 Masterpieces of German Literature Translated into English. in Twenty Volumes
  3. His frocktails winked in bright sunshine to his fat strut.
    — from Ulysses by James Joyce
  4. he’s a hero; the drawback is that his notion of demeanin’ himse’f as sech is to spread his tail feathers an’ strut.
    — from The Black Lion Inn by Alfred Henry Lewis
  5. "Only I'm sorry you are so vain, and strut around so, and want everyone to see how beautiful you are."
    — from Policeman Bluejay by L. Frank (Lyman Frank) Baum
  6. A tubular strut from the frame of the ship made the blow-pipe."
    — from Astounding Stories of Super-Science, June, 1930 by Various
  7. The strut or support of a Congreve rocket.
    — from The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by W. H. (William Henry) Smyth

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