pike
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: diving
fashion
gambling
games
government
gymnastics
hobbies
lifestyle
military
politics
sports
war
Etymology: From Middle English pyke, pyk, pik, pike (“pike; sharp point, iron tip of a staff or spear, pointed toe of an item of footwear; sharp tool; mountain, peak”), from Old English pīc (“pointed object, pick axe”), and Middle French pique (“long thrusting weapon”), from Old French pic (“sharp point, spike”); both ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *pīk, from Proto-Germanic *pīkaz, *pīkō (“sharp point, pike, peak”), related to pick with a narrower meaning.
The word is cognate with Middle Dutch pecke, peke, picke (modern Dutch piek), German Pike, Norwegian pik, Danish pig, and possibly Old Irish pīk. It is a doublet of pique.
The diving or gymnastics position is probably from tapered appearance of the body when the position is executed.
The carnivorous freshwater fish is probably derived from the “sharp point, spike” senses, due to the fish’s pointed jaws.
The verb sense “to quit or back out of a promise” may be from the sense of taking up pilgrim's staff or pike and leaving on a pilgrimage; and compare Middle English pī̆ken (“to go, remove oneself”) and Old Danish pikke af (“to go away”).
Inflected forms:
form: pikes
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: pikes
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: piking
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: piked
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: piked
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: A very long spear used two-handed by infantry soldiers for thrusting (not throwing), both for attacks on enemy foot soldiers and as a countermeasure against cavalry assaults.
pos: noun
tags: historical
examples: An arme pike which a weake man maye use or handle very reddily with such force as a man will not thincke, and the same pike will also become a very good shotte at all tymes.
Wounded and overthrown, the Britons continued their resistance, clung round the legs of the Norman steeds, and cumbered their advance; while their brethren, thrusting with pikes, proved every joint and crevice of the plate and mail, or grappling with the men-at-arms, strove to pull them from their horses by main force, or beat them down with their bills and Welch hooks.
gloss: A sharp, pointed staff or implement.
pos: noun
examples: Each had a ſmall ax in the ſurcingle of his ſaddle, and a pike about fourteen feet long, the weapon with which he charged; […]
A few months after the murder of Don Carlos, the Counts de Horn and d'Egmonte, who had long been detained in prison, notwithstanding their innocence, were put to death by the cruel Alva in the market-place at Brussels, and the heads of these two patriotic martyrs were exposed upon pikes to the view of the populace.
gloss: A large haycock (“conical stack of hay left in a field to dry before adding to a haystack”).
pos: noun
examples: On returning to the hayfield, "Where can Mr. Thorn be?" said Mrs. Merton: "I thought he was in the field." / Magenta and Solferino looked at each other; the haymakers had made a pike on top of the hay in which they had buried him. / "Mamma," said Solferino, "I believe he's under that pike!" / […] "He went to sleep," said Magenta, "and we covered him over with hay, and they have made a pike on top of him!" / "You naughty, tiresome children!" said Mrs. Merton: "what have you done?"
gloss: Any carnivorous freshwater fish of the genus Esox, especially the northern pike, Esox lucius.
pos: noun
examples: And now they begin to catch the pikes, and will ſhortly the trouts (pox on theſe miniſters), and I would fain know whether the floods were ever ſo high as to get over the holly bank or the river walk; if ſo, then all my pikes are gone; but I hope not.
Lord Erskine soon afterwards came to Brighton, and told Mrs. Coutts, if she would give him a dinner he would provide the fish from his own pond. She agreed; and his present proved to be an overgrown pike, weighing between thirty and forty pounds, and so hideous in its appearance that no guest touched it, the mere sight of it being perfectly disagreeable to many.
If you fish for pike with a live-bait, snap tackle, or spinning, it should always be with the hooks attached to gimp, in consequence of the several rows of sharp teeth with which the pike is armed, and which enable it to bite gut in two.
gloss: A position with the knees straight and a tight bend at the hips with the torso folded over the legs, usually part of a jack-knife.
pos: noun
examples: She sprang into the air and jack-knifed into a clumsy pike before following her hands into the water.
Guo and Wu took a big lead after the second dive, a back dive in pike position, which the judges awarded three perfect tens for synchronization.
gloss: A pointy extrusion at the toe of a shoe.
pos: noun
tags: dated
examples: Thus the ſtatute of king Edward IV, which forbad the fine gentlemen of thoſe times (under the degree of a lord) to wear pikes upon their ſhoes or boots of more than two inches in length, was a law that ſavoured of oppreſſion; becauſe, however ridiculous the faſhion then in uſe might appear, the reſtraining of it by pecuniary penalties could ſerve no purpoſe of common utility.
During the earlier part of this period, the long pike disappeared from the shoe, but in the later part it returned in greater longitude than ever. So highly valued indeed was this singular piece of extravagance […] that by a sumptuary statute of 1463, none but lords were allowed to wear shoes or boots having pikes more than two inches long.
gloss: A pointy extrusion at the toe of a shoe.
pos: noun
tags: dated
historical
gloss: Especially in place names: a hill or mountain, particularly one with a sharp peak or summit.
pos: noun
tags: Northern-England
examples: Scafell Pike is the highest mountain in England.
I will thrust my ſelfe into the ſtocks, vpon the pikes of the Land.
The pike of Teneriffe how high it is? 70 miles or 52, as Patritius holds: […]
gloss: A pick, a pickaxe.
pos: noun
tags: obsolete
examples: The pike axe, a single blade axe with a point on the back side of the head, was designed for forcible entry.
gloss: A hayfork.
pos: noun
tags: UK
dialectal
obsolete
examples: Short rakes for to gather vp barlie to binde, / and greater to rake vp such leauings behinde: / A rake for to hale vp the fitchis that lie, / A pike for to pike them vp handsom to drie.
gloss: A penis.
pos: noun
tags: euphemistic
obsolete
often
examples: [F]or to ſerue brauely, is to come halting off, you know to come off the breach, with his pike bent brauely, and to ſurgerie brauely, to venture vpon the chargde chambers brauely.
[D]o I not ſtand, / Ready with my Pike to make my entry, / And are you come to man her?
This is the true Monsieur [Gaston, Duke of Orléans], who ever stands stradling, and when he converses even with the civillest Ladies, faces them in the same posture, ordering and tossing his Pike, with his hands in his Cod-piece.
gloss: To prod, attack, or injure someone with a pike.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Soon after the general marched from Kilcullen, the rebels plundered all the houſes of the proteſtants in it and its vicinity, and murdered ſuch of the inhabitants as could not make their eſcape. […] They piked out one eye of a Mrs. Burchell, aged ninety; they alſo aſſaſſinated ſome wounded ſoldiers who had been left in the town, and Mr. John Cheney at Donard.
They were armed with pikes, which were red with the blood of those they had just murdered. As Mr. Gurley was led toward them, they set up a shout: "O boys, here comes Gurley, the heretic. Pike him! pike him! pike the heretic dog!"
gloss: To assume a pike position.
pos: verb
tags: ambitransitive
examples: In the early stages he can do this by bending at the elbows (no more than 90) as he pikes the legs and straightens the arms in co-ordination with the upward swing of the cast, so that the whole body is extended as he reaches handstand.
At the front of her swing she pikes to wrap her legs under the low bar.
She stood on the block bending slowly; her hands now on the front of the blocks, she dove straight out. Piking, she came up doing the stroke she was famous for—the butterfly.
A diver jumps off the 3 m platform. She is in a stretched-out position (a layout) and barely rotating at first. Then she flexes at the hips and folds herself in half (she pikes), and her rotation speeds up as if by magic.
gloss: To bet or gamble with only small amounts of money.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: I put the temporary squinch on the rum bug when I got there and piked along at a ten-cent table with the last two dollars I had.
Not that my wife is an inveterate gambler; as a matter of fact the poor kid hasn't any card sense at all and doesn't even care for it. She only piked along because I—I compelled her to.
I found no difficulty in obtaining admission to the Navarre's long gambling room, where I "piked" by placing two-bit bets on the numbered roulette board.
gloss: Often followed by on or out: to quit or back out of a promise.
pos: verb
tags: Australia
New-Zealand
intransitive
slang
examples: Don’t pike on me like you did last time!
—But [Albert] Camus piked out, said Carole. [Jean-Paul] Sartre and that lot got pissed off with him, he stood off from the war, he wouldn't oppose it.
[William] Holman accepted the challenge while [John] Norton ‘piked out’; nevertheless Holman won Cootamundra against a strong candidate.
If they didn't go ahead, it would look like they had piked, backed down.
Derived words: Amur pike
blackspotted pike
boarding pike
come down the pike
daggertooth pike conger
fire pike
garpike
halfpike
half-pike
hornpike
mackerel pike
morris-pike
northern pike
pickerel
pike and shot
pike characin
pike-devant
pikehead
pikelike
pikeman
pikeminnow
pike-perch
pikeperch
pike pole
pikestaff
pikie
puck
push of pike
Scafell Pike
sea pike
walleyed pike
pikey
piker
Translations: