Sentence:  It was all true, it appeared. He sat down and wrote it, the editor read it and said: &#39; We don&#39;t use stories like this in this newspaper.&#39; So the story ended up on the <WSD>spike</WSD>, reinforcing the principle that wife-swapping, unlike justice, must not be seen to be done. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A long nail for storing papers and, by extension, the metaphorical place where rejected newspaper articles are sent.