What does "pike" mean?
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.
Pike
/paɪk/ name, noun, verb, slang
name, noun, verb, slang ·Common ·Middle school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: 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.
- Grammar: pike is listed as name, noun, verb, slang.
- Nearest alternatives: alley, alleyway, arterial, arterial highway.
- Usage evidence: Speaking of fall flavors in Japan, what comes to everyone's mind? For me, after all is said and done, it would be pike.
How to use "pike"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "pike" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "pike" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "pike" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "pike" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "pike" is acting as name, noun, verb, slang in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "alley" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "pike", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 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
"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."
- 2 Clipping of turnpike. US, abbreviation, alt-of, clipping
"They tried out every idea that came down the pike."
- 3 A member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. US, slang
- 4 any of several elongate long-snouted freshwater game and food fishes widely distributed in cooler parts of the Northern Hemisphere wordnet
- 5 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; […]"
Show 14 more definitions
- 6 A gypsy, itinerant tramp, or traveller from any ethnic background; a pikey. derogatory, ethnic, slang, slur
"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."
- 7 a broad highway designed for high-speed traffic wordnet
- 8 A large haycock (“conical stack of hay left in a field to dry before adding to a haystack”).
"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?""
- 9 medieval weapon consisting of a spearhead attached to a long pole or pikestaff; superseded by the bayonet wordnet
- 10 Any carnivorous freshwater fish of the genus Esox, especially the northern pike, Esox lucius.
"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."
- 11 a sharp point (as on the end of a spear) wordnet
- 12 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."
- 13 highly valued northern freshwater fish with lean flesh wordnet
- 14 A pointy extrusion at the toe of a shoe. dated
"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."
- 15 A pointy extrusion at the toe of a shoe.; A style of shoes with pikes, popular in Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries. dated, historical
- 16 Especially in place names: a hill or mountain, particularly one with a sharp peak or summit. Northern-England
"Scafell Pike is the highest mountain in England."
- 17 A pick, a pickaxe. obsolete
"The pike axe, a single blade axe with a point on the back side of the head, was designed for forcible entry."
- 18 A hayfork. British, dialectal, obsolete
"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."
- 19 A penis. euphemistic, obsolete, often
"[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."
Verb
- 1 To prod, attack, or injure someone with a pike. transitive
"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."
- 2 To equip with a turnpike. intransitive
"Now suppose we commence and pike one mile of road in every township in this county each year,[…]. The saving on what was piked the years before would be such that you would be able to pay into the treasury only the amount that you did the first year."
- 3 To assume a pike position. ambitransitive
"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."
- 4 To depart or travel (as if by a turnpike), especially to flee, to run away. British, intransitive, obsolete
"Joe sold his sand, and cly'd his cole, sir [marginal note: pocketed his money] / While Bess got a basket of rags, / Then up to St. Giles's they roll'd, sir, / To every bunter Bess brags: / Into a booze-ken they pike it, [marginal note: go] / Where Bess was admitted we hear; / For none of the coves dare but like it, / As Joey, here kiddy, was there."
- 5 To bet or gamble with only small amounts of money. intransitive
"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."
Show 1 more definition
- 6 Often followed by on or out: to quit or back out of a promise. Australia, New-Zealand, intransitive, slang
"Don’t pike on me like you did last time!"
Proper Noun
- 1 A surname from Middle English.
- 2 A number of places in the United States:; A census-designated place in Sierra County, California.
- 3 A number of places in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Boone County, Indiana, first named Pikes Crossing, at the crossing of a turnpike.
- 4 A number of places in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Haverhill, Grafton County, New Hampshire.
- 5 A number of places in the United States:; A town, hamlet, and census-designated place therein, in Wyoming County, New York.
Show 3 more definitions
- 6 A number of places in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Collin County, Texas.
- 7 A number of places in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Ritchie County, West Virginia, named for a turnpike intersection.
- 8 A number of places in the United States:; A number of townships in the United States, listed under Pike Township.
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
"Speaking of fall flavors in Japan, what comes to everyone's mind? For me, after all is said and done, it would be pike."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "pike"?
Common synonyms include: alley, alleyway, arterial, arterial highway, arterial street, artery.
How do you use "pike" in a sentence?
Speaking of fall flavors in Japan, what comes to everyone's mind? For me, after all is said and done, it would be pike.
How do you pronounce "pike"?
Pronounced /paɪk/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
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”).
Etymology 2
Clipping of turnpike (“a toll road, especially a toll expressway; a spiked barrier across a road, originally used to block access to the road until toll had been paid”). Noun sense 2 (“gypsy, itinerant tramp, or traveller”) and verb sense 2 (“to depart, travel, especially to flee, run away”) may refer to someone frequently using turnpikes, or may be derived from Middle English pī̆ken (“to go, remove oneself”).
Etymology 3
The surname is of multiple origins, including Middle English pike.