To not do any work at all. Now that Jim's retired, he just spends all day on the couch watching television. He won't do a stroke of work around the house! I'm going to have a long night ahead with this term paper, as I haven't done a stroke up till now.

A small or insignificant amount of work. Almost always used in the negative to indicate that one has not done any work. Ryan is supposed to help me clean out the garage, but he hasn't done a stroke of work since he got here! I'm going to have a long night ahead with this term paper, as I haven't done a stroke of work up till now.