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Pike vs Spear - What's the difference?

pike | spear |

As nouns the difference between pike and spear

is that pike is a very long thrusting spear used two-handed by infantry both for attacks on enemy foot soldiers and as a counter-measure against cavalry assaults. The pike is not intended to be thrown while spear is a long stick with a sharp tip used as a weapon for throwing or thrusting, or anything used to make a thrusting motion.

As verbs the difference between pike and spear

is that pike is to attack, prod, or injure someone with a pike while spear is to penetrate or strike with, or as if with, any long narrow object. To make a thrusting motion that catches an object on the tip of a long device.

As proper nouns the difference between pike and spear

is that pike is {{surname|from=Middle English}} of multiple origins, including Middle English {{term|pike|lang=enm}} while Spear is {{surname|A=An English|from=nicknames}.

pike

English

(wikipedia pike)

Etymology 1

(etyl) ultimately a variant form of pick, with meaning narrowed. Cognate with Dutch piek, dialectal German Peik, Norwegian pik. pique.

Noun

(en noun)
  • A very long thrusting spear used two-handed by infantry both for attacks on enemy foot soldiers and as a counter-measure against cavalry assaults. The pike is not intended to be thrown.
  • * 1790 , , Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile
  • Each had a small ax in the foreangle of his saddle, and a pike about fourteen feet long, the weapon with which he charged;
  • A sharp point, such as that of the weapon.
  • (Beaumont and Fletcher)
  • Any carnivorous freshwater fish of the genus Esox'', especially the northern pike, ''Esox lucius .
  • A turnpike.
  • (Charles Dickens)
  • A pointy extrusion at the toe of a shoe, found in old-fashioned footwear.
  • * 1861 , The comprehensive history of England Vol. 1
  • During the earlier part of this period, the long pike disappeared from the shoe, but in the later part it returned in greater longitude than ever.
  • * 1904 , George Nicholls, A History of the English Poor Law in Connection with the State of the Country and the Condition of the People
  • Thus the statute of , which forbade the fine gentlemen of those times, under the degree of a lord, to wear pikes upon their shoes or boots of more than two inches in length, was a law that savoured of oppression, because, however ridiculous the fashion might appear, the restraining of it by pecuniary penalties would serve no purpose of common utility.
  • (diving) A dive position with knees straight and a tight bend at the hips.
  • * 2000 , (JG Ballard), Super-Cannes , Fourth Estate 2011, p. 167:
  • She sprang into the air and jack-knifed into a clumsy pike before following her hands into the water.
  • * 2008 , , China wins first diving medal at Beijing Olympics Aug 10 2008 [http://www.tsn.ca/olympics/story/?id=245859&lid=sublink05&lpos=headlines_olympics]
  • 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.
  • (obsolete, UK, dialect) A hayfork.
  • (Tusser)
  • (obsolete) A pick.
  • (Raymond)
    (Wright)
  • A large haycock.
  • (Halliwell)
    Synonyms
    * ''see: northern pike
    Derived terms
    * come down the pike * garpike * pikehead * pikestaff * pikeman

    Verb

    (pik)
  • To attack, prod, or injure someone with a pike.
  • To quit or back out of a promise.
  • Don't pike on me like you did last time!
  • * 2002 , Sylvia Lawson, How Simone De Beauvoir Died in Australia , page 151,
  • —But Camus piked out, said Carole. Sartre and that lot got pissed off with him, he stood off from the war, he wouldn?t oppose it.
  • * 2006 , Pip Wilson, Faces in the Street: Louisa and Henry Lawson and the Castlereagh Street Push , page 543,
  • Holman accepted the challenge while Norton ‘piked out’; nevertheless Holman won Cootamundra against a strong candidate.
  • * 2008 , Chris Pash, The Last Whale , Fremantle Press, Australia, page 36,
  • If they didn?t go ahead, it would look like they had piked , backed down.

    Derived terms

    * piker

    Etymology 2

    Perhaps a special use of Etymology 1, above; or from an early Scandinavian language, compare Norwegian .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A mountain peak or summit.
  • *, II.ii.3:
  • *:The pike of Teneriffe how high it is? 70 miles? or 50, as Patricius holds? or 9, as Snellius demonstrates in his Eratosthenes ?
  • References

    Anagrams

    * ---- ==Norwegian Bokmål==

    Noun

    (nb-noun-c)
  • girl
  • Usage notes

    Jente'' is the standard appellation for girl in Norwegian, however, ''pike may also be used observing its somewhat conservative tint.

    Synonyms

    * (l)

    Derived terms

    * (l) * (l) * (l) * (l)

    References

    *

    spear

    English

    (wikipedia spear)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A long stick with a sharp tip used as a weapon for throwing or thrusting, or anything used to make a thrusting motion.
  • A soldier armed with such a weapon; a spearman.
  • * 2011 , Thomas Penn, Winter King , Penguin 2012, p. 187:
  • Two of the four spears came directly from Lady Margaret's staff. One was her great-nephew Maurice St John […].
  • A sharp tool used by fishermen to retrieve fish.
  • (ice hockey) an illegal maneuver using the end of a hockey stick to strike into another hockey player.
  • (wrestling) a running tackle on an opponent performed in professional wrestling.
  • A spearman.
  • (Sir Walter Scott)
  • A shoot, as of grass; a spire.
  • The feather of a horse.
  • The rod to which the bucket, or plunger, of a pump is attached; a pump rod.
  • A long, thin strip from a vegetable.
  • asparagus and broccoli spears

    Derived terms

    * spearbush * spear gun * spearhead * spearmint * spear thrower * spear tackle * spearwood

    See also

    * assegai, assagai, assagaie, assagay, assegay, azagaia, hassagay, hassaguay, zagaie, zagaye * atlatl * bayonet * harpoon * javelin * joust * lance * pike * spit, used to grill food on fire * woomera

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To penetrate or strike with, or as if with, any long narrow object. To make a thrusting motion that catches an object on the tip of a long device.
  • To shoot into a long stem, as some plants do.
  • (Mortimer)

    Anagrams

    * ----