Word: spike Part of Speech: noun 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. Pronunciation: /spaɪk/ 1. A sort of very large nail. 2. A piece of pointed metal etc. set with points upward or outward. Example: The trap was lined with spikes. 3. Anything resembling such a nail in shape. Labels: broadly Example: 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. 4. An ear of corn or grain. 5. A kind of inflorescence in which sessile flowers are arranged on an unbranched elongated axis. 6. A running shoe with spikes in the sole to provide grip. Labels: in-plural, informal 7. A sharp peak in a graph. 8. 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. Example: 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. Example: 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. 9. The rod-like protrusion from a woman's high-heeled shoe that elevates the heel. 10. A long nail for storing papers by skewering them; (by extension) the metaphorical place where rejected newspaper articles are sent. Example: 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. Example: 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. 11. 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. 12. An adolescent male deer. 13. The casual ward of a workhouse. Labels: historical, slang Example: Dere's tay spikes, and cocoa spikes, and skilly spikes. 14. Spike lavender. Example: oil of spike 15. Synonym of endpin. 16. A mark indicating where a prop or other item should be placed on stage. Example: Sometimes actors set props on the spikes, or sometimes a deckhand will do it, depending on the action of the play. 17. A small project that uses the simplest possible program to explore potential solutions. Example: 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. 18. An excessively high church Anglican. Example: 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. 19. a structure projecting from the surface of an enveloped virus, which binds to host cells.