pike

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A long spear formerly used by infantry.
2. v. To attack or pierce with a pike.
3. n. A freshwater game and food fish (Esox lucius) of the Northern Hemisphere that has a long snout and attains a length of over 1.2 meters (4 feet). Also called northern pike.
4. n. Any of various similar or related fishes.
5. n. A turnpike.
6. n. A tollgate on a turnpike.
7. n. A toll paid.
8. v. To move quickly.
9. idiom. come down the pike Slang To come into prominence: "a policy . . . allowing for little flexibility if an important new singer comes down the pike” ( Christian Science Monitor).
10. n. Chiefly British A hill with a pointed summit.
11. n. A spike or sharp point, as on the tip of a spear.
12. n. A mid-air position in sports such as diving and gymnastics in which the athlete bends to touch the feet or grab the calves or back of the thighs while keeping the legs together and straight.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A sharp point; a spike. Specifically , A point of iron or other metal forming the head or tip of a staff or spear
2. n. A thorn; a prickle.
3. n. The pointed end of a shoe, such as were formerly in fashion, called piked shoon, cra-cows, etc. See cut under cracow.
4. n. A staff or shaft having at the end a sharp point or tip, usually of iron or steel. Specifically
5. n. A sharp-pointed weapon consisting of a long shaft or handle with an iron head. It has been in use from ancient times, but the word dates apparently from the fifteenth century. About that period, and for some time later, it was the arm of a large part of the infantry, and was from 15 to 20 feet long. It continued in use, although reduced in length, throughout the seventeenth century, and was replaced by the bayonet as the latter was improved. It was retained in the British army until a very late date as a mere ensign of rank. (See half-pike and spontoon.) The pike has always been the arm of hastily levied and unequipped soldiers; thousands were used in the French revolution. Such pikes have usually a round conical head, a mere ferrule of thin iron bent into that form, but long, sharp-pointed, and formidable. The pike of regular warfare had sometimes a round, sometimes a flat or spear-like head.
6. n. A weapon which replaced for a short time the simple pointed pike; it had an ax-blade on one side and a pointed beak or hook on the other. In this form it was retained in the French army as a badge of rank as late as the first empire.
7. n. A pitchfork used by farmers.
8. n. A sharp-pointed hill or mountain summit; a peak.
9. n. A point of land; a gore.
10. n. A large cock of hay.
11. n. Same as pikeman, 1.
12. n. A measure of length, originally based on the length of the weapon so called.
13. To pick or pluck.
14. To pick or choose; select; cull.
15. To bring to a point; taper.
16. To pick or peck, as a hawk smoothing its feathers.
17. n. A fish of the genus Esox, or of the family Esocidæ. The common pike of Europe, Siberia, and northern North America is E. lucius. Its cheeks are scaly, the opercles are naked below, the color is grayish with many round whitish spots or pale bars, and the dorsal, anal, and caudal fins are spotted with black. The other pikes of the United States, except the maskalonge, are commonly called pickerel. See also cuts under parasphenoid, palatoquadrate, Esox, optic, and teleost.
18. n. Some other slender fish with a long snout, or otherwise resembling the pike proper (def. 1). Specifically— A cyprinoid fish. Ptychochilus lucius, of slender form with a long snout, inhabiting the Sacramento river and other streams of the Pacific coast.
19. n. The common pickerel, Esox reticulatus.
20. n. The lizard-fish, Synodus fætens.
21. n. A turnpike; a turnpike road.
22. To go rapidly.
23. An obsolete form of pick, pitch.
24. To peep; peek.
25. n. An obsolete form of pique.
26. n. A chilodopterid fish, Dinolestes lewini.
27. To bet very small amounts here and there all over the lay-out, usually following in the wake of some player who is betting heavily.
28. n. A piker.

Wiktionary

1. n. A mountain peak or summit.
2. n. A very long thrusting spear used two-handed by infantry both for attacks on enemy foot soldiers and as a counter-measure against cavalry assaults. The pike is not intended to be thrown.
3. n. A sharp point, such as that of the weapon.
4. n. Any carnivorous freshwater fish of the genus Esox, especially the northern pike, Esox lucius.
5. n. A turnpike.
6. n. A pointy extrusion at the toe of a shoe, found in old-fashioned footwear.
7. n. diving A dive position with knees straight and a tight bend at the hips.
8. v. transitive To attack, prod, or injure someone with a pike.
9. v. Australia, New Zealand, slang To quit or back out of a promise.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Mil.) A foot soldier's weapon, consisting of a long wooden shaft or staff, with a pointed steel head. It is now superseded by the bayonet.
2. n. A pointed head or spike; esp., one in the center of a shield or target.
3. n. Obs. or Prov. Eng. A hayfork.
4. n. Prov. Eng. A pick.
5. n. rare A pointed or peaked hill.
6. n. Prov. Eng. A large haycock.
7. n. A turnpike; a toll bar.
8. n. (Zoöl.) A large fresh-water fish (Esox lucius), found in Europe and America, highly valued as a food fish; -- called also pickerel, gedd, luce, and jack.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. highly valued northern freshwater fish with lean flesh
2. n. a sharp point (as on the end of a spear)
3. n. any of several elongate long-snouted freshwater game and food fishes widely distributed in cooler parts of the northern hemisphere
4. n. a broad highway designed for high-speed traffic
5. n. medieval weapon consisting of a spearhead attached to a long pole or pikestaff; superseded by the bayonet