/spaɪk/
OriginFrom Middle English spike, spyke, spik, from Old Norse spík (“spike, sprig”), from Proto-Germanic *spīkō (“stick, splinter, point”), from Proto-Indo-European *spey- (“to be pointed; sharp point, stick”). Cognate with Icelandic spík (“spike”), Swedish spik (“spike, nail”), Dutch spijker (“nail”), Old English spīcing (“spike”), and Latin spīca (“ear of corn”), which may have influenced some senses.
- A sort of very large nail.
- A piece of pointed metal etc. set with points upward or outward.
“The trap was lined with spikes.”
- broadlyAnything resembling such a nail in shape.
“He vvears on his head the Corona Radiata, vvhich at that time vvas another type of his Divinity. The ſpikes that ſhoot out from the crovvn vvere to repreſent the rays of the Sun.”
- An ear of corn or grain.
- A kind of inflorescence in which sessile flowers are arranged on an unbranched elongated axis.
- in-plural, informalA running shoe with spikes in the sole to provide grip.
- A sharp peak in a graph.
- A surge in power or in the price of a commodity, etc.; any sudden and brief change that would be represented by a sharp peak on a graph.
“If the border were shut down, consumers would most likely see an immediate spike in food prices, and supplies of fresh food could dwindle from grocery store shelves in a matter of days.”
“As well as the boom in off-peak leisure numbers, "there has been a big spike in passenger assistance - that's really taken off as well", he continues. "We're probably victims of our own success becaus”
- The rod-like protrusion from a woman's high-heeled shoe that elevates the heel.
- A long nail for storing papers by skewering them; (by extension) the metaphorical place where rejected newspaper articles are sent.
“It was all true, it appeared. He sat down and wrote it, the editor read it and said: ' We don't use stories like this in this newspaper.' So the story ended up on the spike, reinforcing the principle ”
“Later I was entrusted with writing the letters to the editor, because nobody else ever wrote to our paper. The editor, Eric Lewis, had a slash and burn style of editing that left its mark on me foreve”
“Assuming that word of the death reached the Times's newsroom at all, it would have taken little more than one bleary-eyed night editor who had heard neither of Ventris nor of linear B for the obituary”
- An attack from, usually, above the height of the net performed with the intent to send the ball straight to the floor of the opponent or off the hands of the opposing block.
- An adolescent male deer.
- historical, slangThe casual ward of a workhouse.
“Dere's tay spikes, and cocoa spikes, and skilly spikes.”
- Spike lavender.
- Synonym of endpin.
- A mark indicating where a prop or other item should be placed on stage.
“Sometimes actors set props on the spikes, or sometimes a deckhand will do it, depending on the action of the play.”
- A small project that uses the simplest possible program to explore potential solutions.
“An architectural spike is used to prove that a specific technical approach works. Teams will often do an architectural spike when they have a few different options for designing a specific technical s”
- An excessively high church Anglican.
“Here we see an Anglo-Catholic spike cocking a snook at authority, getting away with it, and probably exercising an important liturgical and sacramental ministry – at least by his own lights – to some ”
- a structure projecting from the surface of an enveloped virus, which binds to host cells.
- To fasten with spikes, or long, large nails.
- To set or furnish with spikes.
- To embed nails into (a tree) so that any attempt to cut it down will damage equipment or injure people.
- To fix on a spike.
“He spiked the story on the “dead” hook and answered his interphone.”
“Better known as Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler), he spiked his victims on stakes arranged in geometric patterns and accorded each a high or low spear, according to his or her rank.”
- figurativelyTo discard; to decide not to publish or make public.
“Nicolaas, or Nick, as the family called him, wanted to turn professional but an ear injury, sustained during the war, spiked his plans.”
“Instead, the "Beaver" declared he would spike the story about Wallis Simpson and make sure his fellow media moguls sat on it too.”
“Anyway, on this day I was still struggling with how to use fewer than twenty words to sum up my day in Blackpool in a manner which would not prove too upsetting for my parents, when I learned that I'd”
- To increase sharply.
“Traffic accidents spiked in December when there was ice on the roads.”
“2017, Jennifer S. Holland, For These Monkeys, It’s a Fight for Survival., National Geographic (March 2017)http://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2017/03/macaques-monkeys-indonesia-endangered-pet-t”
- To add alcohol or a drug into a drink, especially if covertly.
“She spiked my lemonade with vodka!”
“I asked him what was happening, and if it was all me, and he laughed and held me very close and told me that the Kool-Aid had been ‘spiked’ and that I was just beginning my first LSD experience…”
“She'd sit by the fire, arms crossed, demanding that Ruby spike her tea with a cinder. But Ruby would never give in to her demands, no matter how much her mam begged. There was no alcohol in the house ”
- To add a small amount of one substance to another.
“The water sample to be tested has been spiked with arsenic, antimony, mercury, and lead in quantities commonly found in industrial effluents.”
- To attack from, usually, above the height of the net with the intent to send the ball straight to the floor of the opponent or off the hands of the opposing block.
- To render (a gun) unusable by driving a metal spike into its touch hole.
“He jumped down, wrenched the hammer from the armourer's hand, and seizing a nail from the bag, in a few moments he had spiked the gun.”
“Small skirmishes also took place, and the Afghans managed to seize a pair of mule-guns and force the British to spike and abandon two other precious guns.”
- slangTo slam the football to the ground, usually in celebration of scoring a touchdown, or to stop expiring time on the game clock after snapping the ball as to save time for the losing team to attempt to score the tying or winning points.
“to spike the football”
““No one is spiking the football yet,” Mr. Kahl said.”
- slangTo inject a drug with a syringe.
- A male nickname.
“This book contains mostly humorous animal poems by poets such as Spike Milligan, Theodore Roethke, and Rudyard Kipling.”
“He was meant to be called Benjamin, but he arrived with a little tuft of hair on top of his head, like a spike, and they called him Spike for three days, and then recalled a romantic, childless aftern”
- A surname transferred from the nickname.
Formsspikes(plural) · spikes(present, singular, third-person) · spiking(participle, present) · spiked(participle, past) · spiked(past) · Spikes(plural)