pike

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   A very long spear used two-handed by infantry soldiers for thrusting (not throwing), both…

   A very long spear used two-handed by infantry soldiers for thrusting (not throwing), both for attacks on enemy foot soldiers and as a countermeasure against cavalry assaults.

   • An arme pike which a weake man maye use or handle very reddily with such force as a man will not thincke, and the same pike will also become a very good shotte at all tymes.
2. 2

   A sharp, pointed staff or implement.

   • Each had a ſmall ax in the ſurcingle of his ſaddle, and a pike about fourteen feet long, the weapon with which he charged; […]
3. 3

   A large haycock (“conical stack of hay left in a field to dry before adding to a…

   A large haycock (“conical stack of hay left in a field to dry before adding to a haystack”).

4. ›+ 18 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      Any carnivorous freshwater fish of the genus Esox, especially the northern pike, Esox…

      Any carnivorous freshwater fish of the genus Esox, especially the northern pike, Esox lucius.

      • If you fish for pike with a live-bait, snap tackle, or spinning, it should always be with the hooks attached to gimp, in consequence of the several rows of sharp teeth with which the pike is armed, and which enable it to bite gut in two.
   2. 5

      A position with the knees straight and a tight bend at the hips with the torso folded…

      A position with the knees straight and a tight bend at the hips with the torso folded over the legs, usually part of a jack-knife.

      • She sprang into the air and jack-knifed into a clumsy pike before following her hands into the water.
      • Guo and Wu took a big lead after the second dive, a back dive in pike position, which the judges awarded three perfect tens for synchronization.
   3. 6

      A pointy extrusion at the toe of a shoe.

   4. 7

      Especially in place names

      Especially in place names: a hill or mountain, particularly one with a sharp peak or summit.

      • Scafell Pike is the highest mountain in England.
      • I will thrust my ſelfe into the ſtocks, vpon the pikes of the Land.
      • The pike of Teneriffe how high it is? 70 miles or 52, as Patritius holds: […]
   5. 8

      A pick, a pickaxe.

      • The pike axe, a single blade axe with a point on the back side of the head, was designed for forcible entry.
   6. 9

      A hayfork.

      • Short rakes for to gather vp barlie to binde, / and greater to rake vp such leauings behinde: / A rake for to hale vp the fitchis that lie, / A pike for to pike them vp handsom to drie.
   7. 10

      A penis.

      • [F]or to ſerue brauely, is to come halting off, you know to come off the breach, with his pike bent brauely, and to ſurgerie brauely, to venture vpon the chargde chambers brauely.
      • [D]o I not ſtand, / Ready with my Pike to make my entry, / And are you come to man her?
      • This is the true Monsieur [Gaston, Duke of Orléans], who ever stands stradling, and when he converses even with the civillest Ladies, faces them in the same posture, ordering and tossing his Pike, with his hands in his Cod-piece.
   8. 11

      To prod, attack, or injure someone with a pike.

      • They were armed with pikes, which were red with the blood of those they had just murdered. As Mr. Gurley was led toward them, they set up a shout: "O boys, here comes Gurley, the heretic. Pike him! pike him! pike the heretic dog!"
   9. 12

      To assume a pike position.

      • In the early stages he can do this by bending at the elbows (no more than 90) as he pikes the legs and straightens the arms in co-ordination with the upward swing of the cast, so that the whole body is extended as he reaches handstand.
      • At the front of her swing she pikes to wrap her legs under the low bar.
      • She stood on the block bending slowly; her hands now on the front of the blocks, she dove straight out. Piking, she came up doing the stroke she was famous for—the butterfly.
   10. 13

       To bet or gamble with only small amounts of money.

       • I put the temporary squinch on the rum bug when I got there and piked along at a ten-cent table with the last two dollars I had.
       • Not that my wife is an inveterate gambler; as a matter of fact the poor kid hasn't any card sense at all and doesn't even care for it. She only piked along because I—I compelled her to.
       • I found no difficulty in obtaining admission to the Navarre's long gambling room, where I "piked" by placing two-bit bets on the numbered roulette board.
   11. 14

       Often followed by on or out

       Often followed by on or out: to quit or back out of a promise.

       • Don’t pike on me like you did last time!
       • —But [Albert] Camus piked out, said Carole. [Jean-Paul] Sartre and that lot got pissed off with him, he stood off from the war, he wouldn't oppose it.
       • [William] Holman accepted the challenge while [John] Norton ‘piked out’; nevertheless Holman won Cootamundra against a strong candidate.
   12. 15

       Clipping of turnpike.

       • They tried out every idea that came down the pike.
       • There is heavy traffic on the Mass Pike.
       • Under cover of the woods, they moved still further south, in a direction parallel with the Baltimore pike; but Gregg was moving too, and when they started out toward the pike, they were again confronted.
   13. 16

       A gypsy, itinerant tramp, or traveller from any ethnic background

       A gypsy, itinerant tramp, or traveller from any ethnic background; a pikey.

   14. 17

       To equip with a turnpike.

       • On motion Duke street from King street to Princess street was ordered to be piked.
   15. 18

       To depart or travel (as if by a turnpike), especially to flee, to run away.

       • Two hoodlums were "piking" up Woodward Avenue yesterday, when they encountered a boy acquaintance who asked where they were going.
   16. 19

       A surname from Middle English.

   17. 20

       A number of places in the United States

       A number of places in the United States:

   18. 21

       A member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity.

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