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Pike vs Spike - What's the difference?

pike | spike |

As nouns the difference between pike and spike

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 spike is an ear of corn or grain.

As verbs the difference between pike and spike

is that pike is to attack, prod, or injure someone with a pike while spike is to fix on a spike; to pierce or run through with a spike.

As proper nouns the difference between pike and spike

is that pike is {{surname|from=Middle English}} of multiple origins, including Middle English {{term|pike|lang=enm}} while Spike is A male nickname.

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

    *

    spike

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An ear of corn or grain.
  • # (botany) A kind of inflorescence in which sessile flowers are arranged on an unbranched elongated axis.
  • #
  • oil of spike
  • Something pointed or sharp.
  • # A sort of very large nail; anything resembling such a nail in shape.
  • #* Addison
  • He wears on his head the corona radiata ; the spikes that shoot out represent the rays of the sun.
  • # 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.
    • "Dere's tay spikes', and cocoa '''spikes''', and skilly ' spikes ."

    Synonyms

    * catkin, raceme, cluster, corymb, umbel

    Derived terms

    {{der3, marlinspike , spike addition}}

    Verb

    (spik)
  • To fix on a spike; to pierce or run through with a spike.
  • # To fasten with spikes, or long, large nails.
  • to spike down planks
  • # To set or furnish with spikes.
  • (Young)
  • # (military) To render (a gun) unusable by driving a metal spike into its touch hole.
  • #* 1834 , (Frederick Marryat), Peter Simple :
  • 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.
  • #* 1990 , (Peter Hopkirk), The Great Game , Folio Society 2010, p. 235-6:
  • 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.
  • # (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.
    • Traffic accidents spiked in December when there was ice on the roads.
  • 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.
  • * '>citation
  • # (specifically) To covertly put alcohol or another intoxicating substance into food or drink.
  • She spiked my lemonade with vodka!

    • Derived terms

    * spike someone's guns

    Synonyms

    * (volleyball): attack, hit

    Anagrams

    * * * English terms with multiple etymologies