noun

• (military, historical) 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.
  "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."
• (diving, gymnastics) 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."
• (fashion, dated) A pointy extrusion at the toe of a shoe.
  "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."
• (fashion, dated) A pointy extrusion at the toe of a shoe.

verb

• (transitive) To prod, attack, or injure someone with a pike.
  "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."
• (ambitransitive, diving, gymnastics) To assume a pike position.
  "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."
• (intransitive, gambling) To bet or gamble with only small amounts of money.
  "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."
• (intransitive, Australia, New Zealand, slang) Often followed by on or out: to quit or back out of a promise.
  "Don’t pike on me like you did last time!"

noun

• (chiefly US) Clipping of turnpike.
  "They tried out every idea that came down the pike."
• (derogatory, ethnic slur, slang) A gypsy, itinerant tramp, or traveller from any ethnic background; a pikey.
  "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."

verb

• (intransitive) To equip with a turnpike.
  "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."
• (intransitive, obsolete, British, thieves' cant) To depart or travel (as if by a turnpike), especially to flee, to run away.
  "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."