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Webster 1913 Edition

Spike

Spike

,
Noun.
[Akin to LG.
spiker
,
spieker
, a large nail, D.
spijker
, Sw.
spik
, Dan.
spiger
, Icel.
spīk
; all perhaps from L.
spica
a point, an ear of grain; but in the sense of nail more likely akin to E.
spoke
of a wheel. Cf.
Spine
.]
1.
A sort of very large nail; also, a piece of pointed iron set with points upward or outward.
2.
Anything resembling such a nail in shape.
He wears on his head the
corona radiata
. . . ; the
spikes
that shoot out represent the rays of the sun.
Addison.
3.
An ear of corn or grain.
4.
(Bot.)
A kind of flower cluster in which sessile flowers are arranged on an unbranched elongated axis.
Spike grass
(Bot.)
,
either of two tall perennial American grasses (
Uniola paniculata
, and
Uniola latifolia
) having broad leaves and large flattened spikelets.
–
Spike rush
.
(Bot.)
See under
Rush
.
–
Spike shell
(Zool.)
,
any pteropod of the genus
Styliola
having a slender conical shell.
–
Spike team
,
three horses, or a horse and a yoke of oxen, harnessed together, a horse leading the oxen or the span.
[U.S.]

Spike

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Spiked
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Spiking
.]
1.
To fasten with spikes, or long, large nails;
as, to
spike
down planks
.
2.
To set or furnish with spikes.
3.
To fix on a spike.
[R.]
Young.
4.
To stop the vent of (a gun or cannon) by driving a spike nail, or the like into it.

Spike

,
Noun.
[Cf. G.
spieke
, L.
spica
an ear of grain. See
Spikenard
.]
(Bot.)
Spike lavender. See
Lavender
.
Oil of spike
(Chem.)
,
a colorless or yellowish aromatic oil extracted from the European broad-leaved lavender, or aspic (
Lavendula Spica
), used in artist’s varnish and in veterinary medicine. It is often adulterated with oil of turpentine, which it much resembles.

Webster 1828 Edition

Spike

SPIKE

,
Noun.
[L. L. spica, and ear of corn. It signifies a shoot or point.]
1.
A large uail; always in American applied to a nail or pin of metal. A similar thing made of word is called a peg or pin. In England, it is sometimes used for a sharp point of wood.
2.
An ear of corn or grain. It is applied to the heads of wheat, rye and barley; and is particularly applicable to the ears of maiz.
3.
A shoot.
4.
[L. spica.] In botany, a species of inflorescence, in which sessile flowers are alternate on a common simple peduncle, as in wheat and rye, lavender, &c.

SPIKE

,
Noun.
A smaller species of lavender.

SPIKE

, v.t.
1.
To fasten with spikes or long and large nails; as, to spike down the planks of a floor or bridge.
2.
To set with spikes. A youth leaping over the spiked pales-was caught by the spikes. [Unusual.]
3.
To stop the vent with spikes; as, to spike cannon.

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