Word: spike Part of Speech: verb 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. To fasten with spikes, or long, large nails. Example: to spike down planks 2. To set or furnish with spikes. 3. To embed nails into (a tree) so that any attempt to cut it down will damage equipment or injure people. 4. To fix on a spike. Example: He spiked the story on the “dead” hook and answered his interphone. Example: Better known as Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler), he spiked his victims on stakes arranged in geometric patterns and accorded each a high or low spear, according to his or her rank. 5. To discard; to decide not to publish or make public. Labels: figuratively Example: Nicolaas, or Nick, as the family called him, wanted to turn professional but an ear injury, sustained during the war, spiked his plans. Example: Instead, the "Beaver" declared he would spike the story about Wallis Simpson and make sure his fellow media moguls sat on it too. 6. To increase sharply. Example: Traffic accidents spiked in December when there was ice on the roads. Example: 2017, Jennifer S. Holland, For These Monkeys, It’s a Fight for Survival., National Geographic (March 2017)http://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2017/03/macaques-monkeys-indonesia-endangered-pet-trade/ But the bigger threat is that people in Sulawesi have been eating macaque meat for centuries. Today it goes for about two dollars a pound (an adult macaque weighs 18 to 23 pounds), and demand spikes at holidays. 7. To add alcohol or a drug into a drink, especially if covertly. Example: She spiked my lemonade with vodka! Example: I asked him what was happening, and if it was all me, and he laughed and held me very close and told me that the Kool-Aid had been ‘spiked’ and that I was just beginning my first LSD experience… 8. To add a small amount of one substance to another. Example: The water sample to be tested has been spiked with arsenic, antimony, mercury, and lead in quantities commonly found in industrial effluents. 9. 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. 10. To render (a gun) unusable by driving a metal spike into its touch hole. Example: 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. Example: 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. 11. To slam the 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. Labels: slang Example: to spike the football Example: “No one is spiking the football yet,” Mr. Kahl said. 12. To inject a drug with a syringe. Labels: slang