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Literary notes about thrust (AI summary)

In literature, the word thrust is employed with remarkable versatility to evoke forceful, often sudden movement, whether physically or metaphorically. It can denote a violent action—such as the decisive spear thrust in ancient battle scenes [1] or the aggressive thrust of a fist in a heated confrontation [2]—while also capturing more subtle bodily gestures, like a head thrust through a window in a moment of anxious curiosity [3] or a man thrusting his head out of his coat to peer into a room [4]. Beyond the physical, it metaphorically expresses being compelled into a situation, as when a character finds themselves unexpectedly pushed aside or inserted into events beyond their control [5], [6]. Even in technical contexts, thrust—measured in units of force—is used to convey precise and dynamic energy, underscoring its broad adaptability within literary language [7].
  1. As he spoke he drew the bronze spear from the wound, planting his foot upon the body, which he thrust off and let lie on its back.
    — from The Iliad by Homer
  2. The child glared at his father, and thinking him asleep, got a knife and made a thrust at him.
    — from Korean folk tales : by Pang Im and Yuk Yi
  3. She thrust forth her head from the lattice, and looked anxiously upward.
    — from The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
  4. Fyodor Pavlovitch opened the window and thrust his whole head out.
    — from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  5. He flushed to his haggard eyes, flushed so cruelly that she repented the thrust.
    — from The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
  6. He had meant everything to turn out differently; and others had thrust themselves into his life and thwarted his purposes.
    — from Middlemarch by George Eliot
  7. These engines developed a total thrust of 3.5 million kilograms (7.6 million pounds).
    — from Rockets, Missiles, and Spacecraft of the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution

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