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Spile vs Spike - What's the difference?

spile | spike |

As a noun spile

is a splinter or spile can be a pile; a post or girder.

As a verb spile

is to plug (a hole) with a spile or spile can be to support by means of spiles or spile can be (us|dialect|ambitransitive) spoil.

As a proper noun spike is

.

spile

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) or (etyl) , (etyl) spile.

Noun

(en noun)
  • A splinter.
  • A spigot or plug used to stop the hole in a barrel or cask.
  • *1898 , , (Moonfleet) Chapter 4
  • *:So I felt my way down the passage back to the vault, and recked not of the darkness, nor of Blackbeard and his crew, if only I could lay my lips to liquor. Thus I groped about the barrels till near the top of the stack my hand struck on the spile of a keg, and drawing it, I got my mouth to the hold.
  • (US) A spout inserted in a maple (or other tree) to draw off sap.
  • Verb

    (spil)
  • To plug (a hole) with a spile.
  • To draw off (a liquid) using a spile.
  • To provide (a barrel, tree etc.) with a spile.
  • Etymology 2

    Alteration of (pile), after Etymology 1, above.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A pile; a post or girder.
  • Verb

    (spil)
  • To support by means of spiles.
  • Etymology 3

    Alteration of (l).

    Verb

    (spil)
  • (US, dialect, ambitransitive) spoil.
  • Anagrams

    * * * ----

    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