spike
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /spaɪk/
rhymes: -aɪk
Forms: form: spikes
Etymology: From Middle English spike, spyke, spik, from Old Norse spík (“spike, sprig”), from Proto-Germanic *spīkō (“stick, splinter, point”), from Proto-Indo-European *spey- (“to be pointed; sharp point, stick”). Cognate with Icelandic spík (“spike”), Swedish spik (“spike, nail”), Dutch spijker (“nail”), Old English spīcing (“spike”), and Latin spīca (“ear of corn”), which may have influenced some senses.
Senses: glosses: A sort of very large nail.
examples: text: The trap was lined with spikes.
glosses: A piece of pointed metal etc. set with points upward or outward.
examples: text: He vvears on his head the Corona Radiata, vvhich at that time vvas another type of his Divinity. The ſpikes that ſhoot out from the crovvn vvere to repreſent the rays of the Sun.
ref: a. 1720 (date written), [Joseph Addison], “Dialogue II”, in Dialogues upon the Usefulness of Ancient Medals. […], [London]: [s.n.], published 1726, →OCLC, page 111:
glosses: Anything resembling such a nail in shape.
glosses: An ear of corn or grain.
topics: biology
botany
natural-sciences
glosses: A kind of inflorescence in which sessile flowers are arranged on an unbranched elongated axis.
glosses: A running shoe with spikes in the sole to provide grip.
glosses: A sharp peak in a graph.
examples: text: If the border were shut down, consumers would most likely see an immediate spike in food prices, and supplies of fresh food could dwindle from grocery store shelves in a matter of days.
ref: 2019 April 1, Ana Swanson, “Avocado shortages and price spikes: How Trump’s border closing would hit U.S.”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:
text: As well as the boom in off-peak leisure numbers, "there has been a big spike in passenger assistance - that's really taken off as well", he continues. "We're probably victims of our own success because we promote this more than we ever used to. We promote how accessible the railways are. I think that this area has more than doubled from pre-COVID levels.
ref: 2023 November 1, Nick Brodrick talks to Jason Cocker, “A Station that ‘Oozes’ Customer Service …”, in RAIL, number 995, pages 52-53:
glosses: A surge in power or in the price of a commodity, etc.; any sudden and brief change that would be represented by a sharp peak on a graph.
glosses: The rod-like protrusion from a woman's high-heeled shoe that elevates the heel.
examples: text: It was all true, it appeared. He sat down and wrote it, the editor read it and said: ' We don't use stories like this in this newspaper.' So the story ended up on the spike, reinforcing the principle that wife-swapping, unlike justice, must not be seen to be done.
ref: 1974, Books and Bookmen:
text: Later I was entrusted with writing the letters to the editor, because nobody else ever wrote to our paper. The editor, Eric Lewis, had a slash and burn style of editing that left its mark on me forever. Most of my stories ended up on the spike.
ref: 2005, David Bouchier, Writer at Work: Reflections on the Art and Business of Writing, iUniverse, →ISBN:
text: Assuming that word of the death reached the Times's newsroom at all, it would have taken little more than one bleary-eyed night editor who had heard neither of Ventris nor of linear B for the obituary to have been consigned to the spike.
ref: 2013, Margalit Fox, Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code and the Uncovering of a Lost Civilisation, Profile Books, →ISBN:
synonyms: spindle
glosses: A long nail for storing papers by skewering them; (by extension) the metaphorical place where rejected newspaper articles are sent.
topics: ball-games
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
volleyball
glosses: 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.
topics: biology
natural-sciences
zoology
glosses: An adolescent male deer.
examples: text: Dere's tay spikes, and cocoa spikes, and skilly spikes.
ref: 1933 January 9, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Down and Out in Paris and London, London: Victor Gollancz […], →OCLC, page 189:
glosses: The casual ward of a workhouse.
examples: text: oil of spike
glosses: Spike lavender.
topics: arts
crafts
entertainment
hobbies
lifestyle
lutherie
music
glosses: Synonym of endpin.
synonyms: word: endpin
examples: text: Sometimes actors set props on the spikes, or sometimes a deckhand will do it, depending on the action of the play.
ref: 2020, John Ramsey Holloway, Zachary Stribling, Illustrated Theatre Production Guide, page 15:
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
theater
glosses: A mark indicating where a prop or other item should be placed on stage.
examples: text: An architectural spike is used to prove that a specific technical approach works. Teams will often do an architectural spike when they have a few different options for designing a specific technical solution, or if they don't know if a certain approach will work.
ref: 2017, Andrew Stellman, Jennifer Greene, Head First Agile […] , O'Reilly Media, →ISBN:
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
software
glosses: A small project that uses the simplest possible program to explore potential solutions.
examples: text: Here we see an Anglo-Catholic spike cocking a snook at authority, getting away with it, and probably exercising an important liturgical and sacramental ministry – at least by his own lights – to some of the troops on the Western Front.
ref: 2016 November 24, Robert Beaken, “Onward, Christian Soldiers”, in New Directions:
qualifier: Anglicanism
glosses: An excessively high church Anglican.
Derived terms: aerospike
antispike
backspike
butt spike
chickenspike
despike
dog spike
dogspike
golden spike
handspike
interspike
intraspike
liberty spike
marline spike
marling spike
marlin spike
marlinspike
microspike
minispike
multispike
nanospike
oil of spike
polyspike
prespike
railroad spike
rail spike
road spikes
spignel
spike addition
spike attack
spikebill
spike bug
spike camp
spike fiddle
spikefish
spikegrass
spike heath
spike heel
spikehorn
spike-in
spikeless
spikelet
spikelike
spike lute
spike moss
spikenail
spikenard
spike oil
spike plank
spike poison
spike-primrose
spikeproof
spike protein
spiker
spikery
spike strip
spiketail
spike team
spike train
spikewise
superspike
track spike
traffic spikes
unspike
voltage spike
yellowspike orchid