Impale vs Spike - What's the difference?
impale | spike |
to pierce with a pale; to put to death by fixing on a sharp stake.
more generally, to pierce (something) with any long, pointed object.
An ear of corn or grain.
# (botany) A kind of inflorescence in which sessile flowers are arranged on an unbranched elongated axis.
#
Something pointed or sharp.
# A sort of very large nail; anything resembling such a nail in shape.
#* Addison
# The long, narrow part of a woman's high-heeled shoe that elevates the heel.
# A sharp peak in a graph.
# a surge in power.
# (informal) In spikes : running shoes with spikes in the soles.
# (volleyball) 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.
(zoology) An adolescent male deer.
(slang) The casual ward of a workhouse.
* 1933 : , p. 139.
To fix on a spike; to pierce or run through with a spike.
# To fasten with spikes, or long, large nails.
# To set or furnish with spikes.
# (military) To render (a gun) unusable by driving a metal spike into its touch hole.
#* 1834 , (Frederick Marryat), Peter Simple :
#* 1990 , (Peter Hopkirk), The Great Game , Folio Society 2010, p. 235-6:
# (journalism) To decide not to publish or make public. (From the former practice of newspaper editors impaling sheets of typewritten articles not selected for publication on a metal spike or spindle placed on their desks: see 2010 quotation.)
#*
#* '>citation
# (American football) To slam a 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.
# (volleyball) 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 increase sharply.
To add a small amount of one substance to another.
* '>citation
# (specifically) To covertly put alcohol or another intoxicating substance into food or drink.
As a verb impale
is to pierce with a pale; to put to death by fixing on a sharp stake.As a proper noun spike is
.impale
English
Alternative forms
* empale (obsolete)Verb
(impal)spike
English
Noun
(en noun)- oil of spike
- He wears on his head the corona radiata ; the spikes that shoot out represent the rays of the sun.
- "Dere's tay spikes', and cocoa '''spikes''', and skilly ' spikes ."
Synonyms
* catkin, raceme, cluster, corymb, umbelDerived terms
{{der3, marlinspike , spike addition}}Verb
(spik)- to spike down planks
- (Young)
- 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.
- Traffic accidents spiked in December when there was ice on the roads.
- The water sample to be tested has been spiked with arsenic, antimony, mercury, and lead in quantities commonly found in industrial effluents.
- She spiked my lemonade with vodka!