Meaning of Pike | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity.
   US, slang
2. 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.
   historical
3. Clipping of turnpike.
   US, abbreviation, alt-of, clipping
4. A surname from Middle English.
5. A sharp, pointed staff or implement.
6. A gypsy, itinerant tramp, or traveller from any ethnic background; a pikey.
   derogatory, ethnic, slang, slur
7. A number of places in the United States:
8. A census-designated place in Sierra County, California.
9. A large haycock (“conical stack of hay left in a field to dry before adding to a haystack”).
10. An unincorporated community in Boone County, Indiana, first named Pikes Crossing, at the crossing of a turnpike.
11. Any carnivorous freshwater fish of the genus Esox, especially the northern pike, Esox lucius.
12. An unincorporated community in Haverhill, Grafton County, New Hampshire.
13. 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.
14. A town, hamlet, and census-designated place therein, in Wyoming County, New York.
15. A pointy extrusion at the toe of a shoe.
    dated
16. An unincorporated community in Collin County, Texas.
17. A style of shoes with pikes, popular in Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries.
    dated, historical
18. An unincorporated community in Ritchie County, West Virginia, named for a turnpike intersection.
19. A number of townships in the United States, listed under Pike Township.
20. Especially in place names: a hill or mountain, particularly one with a sharp peak or summit.
    Northern-England
21. A pick, a pickaxe.
    obsolete
22. A hayfork.
    British, dialectal, obsolete
23. A penis.
    euphemistic, obsolete, often

Equivalents

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.”

“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.”

“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?"”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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: […]”

“The pike axe, a single blade axe with a point on the back side of the head, was designed for forcible entry.”

“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.”

“[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.”

Falstaff asserts that he is potent using military imagery, by suggesting that after a man has engaged in sexual intercourse and ejaculated ("served bravely"), his penis ("pike") will become flaccid ("come halting off", "bent bravely").

“[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.”

“They tried out every idea that came down the pike.”

“There is heavy traffic on the Mass Pike.”

“Under cover of the woods, they moved still further south, in a direction parallel with the Baltimore pike; but Gregg was moving too, and when they started out toward the pike, they were again confronted.”

“The true "Pike," however, in the Californian sense of the word, is the wandering gypsy-like Southern poor white. […] "I found a Pike the other day killing and salting hogs, and actually hauling the salt pork off to sell it," said a gentleman in whose company we were discussing these people. / "Certainly that was an industrious Pike," said I. / "Yes, but confound it, they were my hogs," he replied, with natural wrath.”

CEFR level