pike
Meanings
Plural: pikes
Noun
- a broad highway designed for high-speed traffic
- highly valued northern freshwater fish with lean flesh
- a sharp point (as on the end of a spear)
- medieval weapon consisting of a spearhead attached to a long pole or pikestaff; superseded by the bayonet
- any of several elongate long-snouted freshwater game and food fishes widely distributed in cooler parts of the northern hemisphere
- 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.
- A sharp, pointed staff or implement.
- A large haycock (“conical stack of hay left in a field to dry before adding to a haystack”).
- Any carnivorous freshwater fish of the genus Esox, especially the northern pike, Esox lucius.
- 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.
- A pointy extrusion at the toe of a shoe.
- A pointy extrusion at the toe of a shoe.
- A style of shoes with pikes, popular in Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries.
- Especially in place names: a hill or mountain, particularly one with a sharp peak or summit.
- A pick, a pickaxe.
- A hayfork.
- A penis.
- Clipping of turnpike.
- A gypsy, itinerant tramp, or traveller from any ethnic background; a pikey.
Verb
- To prod, attack, or injure someone with a pike.
- To assume a pike position.
- To bet or gamble with only small amounts of money.
- Often followed by on or out: to quit or back out of a promise.
- To equip with a turnpike.
- To depart or travel (as if by a turnpike), especially to flee, to run away.
Origin / 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”).
Synonyms
expressway, freeway, ged, motorway, northern pike, state highway, superhighway, throughway, thruway
Scrabble Score: 10
pike is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL wordpike is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
pike is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary