pike

noun13

1. •
   Any carnivorous freshwater fish of the genus Esox, especially the northern pike, Esox lucius.
2. •
   A sharp, pointed staff or implement.

   • Each had a small ax in the surcingle of his saddle, and a pike about fourteen feet long, the weapon with which he charged; […] — 1790
3. •
   (historical) 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.

   • 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. — 1558
4. •
   (US) Clipping of turnpike.

   • They tried out every idea that came down the pike.
   • There is heavy traffic on the Mass Pike.
5. •
   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.

   • She sprang into the air and jack-knifed into a clumsy pike before following her hands into the water. — 2000
6. •
   (Northern-England) Especially in place names: a hill or mountain, particularly one with a sharp peak or summit.

   • Scafell Pike is the highest mountain in England.
7. •
   (slang, offensive) A gypsy, itinerant tramp, or traveller from any ethnic background; a pikey.
8. •
   (old-fashioned, historical) A style of shoes with pikes, popular in Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries.
9. •
   (old-fashioned) A pointy extrusion at the toe of a shoe.
10. •
    A large haycock (“conical stack of hay left in a field to dry before adding to a haystack”).
11. •
    (no longer used) A pick, a pickaxe.

    • The pike axe, a single blade axe with a point on the back side of the head, was designed for forcible entry. — 2015
12. •
    (dialect, no longer used) A hayfork.

    • 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. — 1878
13. •
    (euphemistic, no longer used) A penis.

    • [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. — 2016

verb6

1. •
   To prod, attack, or injure someone with a pike.
2. •
   To assume a pike position.

   • At the front of her swing she pikes to wrap her legs under the low bar. — 1980
3. •
   (Australia, slang) Often followed by on or out: to quit or back out of a promise.

   • Don’t pike on me like you did last time!
4. •
   To bet or gamble with only small amounts of money.

   • 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. — 1900
5. •
   To equip with a turnpike.

   • On motion Duke street from King street to Princess street was ordered to be piked. — 1917
6. •
   (UK, no longer used) To depart or travel (as if by a turnpike), especially to flee, to run away.

   • Two hoodlums were "piking" up Woodward Avenue yesterday, when they encountered a boy acquaintance who asked where they were going. — 1875

noun1

1. •
   (US, slang) A member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity.