spike

From Middle English spike, spyke, spik [1], 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.

• IPA^(key): /spaɪk/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -aɪk

spike (plural spikes)

1. A sort of very large nail; also, a piece of pointed iron set with points upward/outward.
2. Anything resembling such a nail in shape.
   • Addison

     He wears on his head the corona radiata […] ; the spikes that shoot out represent the rays of the sun.

3. An ear of corn or grain.
4. (botany) A kind of inflorescence in which sessile flowers are arranged on an unbranched elongated axis.
5. (in plural spikes; informal) Running shoes with spikes in the soles.
6. A sharp peak in a graph.
7. The long, narrow part of a high-heeled shoe that elevates the heel.
8. A long nail for storing papers and, by extension, the metaphorical place where rejected newspaper articles are sent.
   • 1974, Books and Bookmen

     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.

   • 2005, David Bouchier, Writer at Work: Reflections on the Art and Business of Writing, iUniverse ISBN 9781462065332

     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.

   • 2013, Margalit Fox, Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code and the Uncovering of a Lost Civilisation, Profile Books ISBN 9781847659705

     Assuming that word of the death reached the Times's newsroom at all, it would have taken little more than one bleary-eyed night editor who had heard neither of Ventris nor of linear B for the obituary to have been consigned to the spike.

9. (volleyball) 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.
10. (zoology) An adolescent male deer.
11. A surge in power.
12. (slang) The casual ward of a workhouse.
    • 1933: George Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London, p. 139.

      "Dere's tay spikes, and cocoa spikes, and skilly spikes."

13. Spike lavender.

    oil of spike

14. (music, lutherie) Synonym of endpin.

• (botany: kind of inflorescence): catkin, raceme, cluster, corymb, umbel

spike (third-person singular simple present spikes, present participle spiking, simple past and past participle spiked)

1. To fasten with spikes, or long, large nails.

   to spike down planks

2. To set or furnish with spikes.
3. To fix on a spike.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Young to this entry?)

4. To embed nails into (a tree) so that any attempt to cut it down will damage equipment or injure people.
5. To prevent or frustrate.
   • 1981, Chris Greyvenstein, The Fighters (page 145)

     Nicolaas, or Nick, as the family called him, wanted to turn professional but an ear injury, sustained during the war, spiked his plans.

6. To increase sharply.

   Traffic accidents spiked in December when there was ice on the roads.

   • 2017, Jennifer S. Holland, For These Monkeys, It’s a Fight for Survival., National Geographic (March 2017)

     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 covertly put alcohol or another intoxicating substance into a drink.

   She spiked my lemonade with vodka!

8. To add a small amount of one substance to another.

   The water sample to be tested has been spiked with arsenic, antimony, mercury, and lead in quantities commonly found in industrial effluents.

9. (volleyball) 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. (military) To render (a gun) unusable by driving a metal spike into its touch hole.
    • 1834, Frederick Marryat, Peter Simple:

      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.

    • 1990, Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game, Folio Society 2010, p. 235-6:

      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. (journalism) To decide not to publish or make public.
    • October 14, 2002, Jonathan Sale, The Guardian, Edward VIII news blackout.

      Instead, the "Beaver" declared he would spike the story about Wallis Simpson and make sure his fellow media moguls sat on it too.

12. (football slang) 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.

• (volleyball): attack, hit

• spike someone's guns

• kepis, kipes, pikes