What is "pike"

Pike \Pike\, n. [F. pique; perhaps of Celtic origin; cf. W. pig a prick, a point, beak, Arm. pik pick. But cf. also L. picus woodpecker (see Pie magpie), and E. spike. Cf. Pick, n. & v., Peak, Pique.]

1. (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 It is now superseded by the bayonet.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. A pointed head or spike; esp., one in the center of a shield or target.
   --Beau. & Fl.

3. A hayfork. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.]
   --Tusser.

4. A pick. [Prov. Eng.]
   --Wright. Raymond.

5. A pointed or peaked hill. [R.]

6. A large haycock. [Prov. Eng.]
   --Halliwell.

7. A turnpike; a toll bar.
   --Dickens.

8. (Zo["o]l.) sing. & pl. 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.

   Note: Blue pike, grass pike, green pike, wall-eyed pike, and yellow pike, are names, not of true pike, but of the wall-eye. See Wall-eye.

   Gar pike. See under Gar.

   Pike perch (Zo["o]l.), any fresh-water fish of the genus Stizostedion (formerly Lucioperca). See Wall-eye, and Sauger.

   Pike pole, a long pole with a pike in one end, used in directing floating logs.

   Pike whale (Zo["o]l.), a finback whale of the North Atlantic ( Bal[ae]noptera rostrata), having an elongated snout; -- called also piked whale.

   Sand pike (Zo["o]l.), the lizard fish.

   Sea pike (Zo["o]l.), the garfish (a) .

"highway," 1812 shortening of turnpike.

"weapon with a long shaft and a pointed metal head," 1510s, from Middle French pique "a spear; pikeman," from piquer "to pick, puncture, pierce," from Old French pic "sharp point or spike," a general continental term (Spanish pica, Italian picca, Provençal piqua), perhaps ultimately from a Germanic [Barnhart] or Celtic source (see pike (n.4)). Alternative explanation traces the Old French word (via Vulgar Latin *piccare "to prick, pierce") to Latin picus "woodpecker." "Formerly the chief weapon of a large part of the infantry; in the 18th c. superseded by the bayonet" [OED]; hence old expressions such as pass through pikes "come through difficulties, run the gauntlet;" push of pikes "close-quarters combat." German Pike, Dutch piek, Danish pik, etc. are from French pique.

"voracious freshwater fish," early 14c., probably short for pike-fish, a special use of pike (n.2) in reference to the fish's long, pointed jaw, and in part from French brochet "pike" (fish), from broche "a roasting spit."

"pick used in digging," Middle English pik, pyk, collateral (long-vowel) form of pic (source of pick (n.1)), from Old English piic "pointed object, pickaxe," perhaps from a Celtic source (compare Gaelic pic "pickaxe," Irish pice "pike, pitchfork"). Extended early 13c. to "pointed tip" of anything. Pike, pick, and pitch formerly were used indifferently in English. Pike position in diving, gymnastics, etc., attested from 1928, perhaps on the notion of "tapering to a point."

Etymology 1 n. 1 A very long thrust 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. 2 A sharp point, such as that of the weapon. 3 Any carnivorous freshwater fish of the genus ''Esox'', especially the northern pike, ''Esox lucius''. 4 A turnpike. 5 A pointy extrusion at the toe of a shoe, found in old-fashioned footwear. 6 (context diving English) A dive position with knees straight and a tight bend at the hips. 7 (context obsolete UK dialect English) A hayfork. 8 (context obsolete English) A pick. 9 A large haycock. vb. 1 (context transitive English) To attack, prod, or injure someone with a pike. 2 (context Australia New Zealand slang often with "on" or "out" English) To quit or back out of a promise. Etymology 2

n. (context now UK regional English) A mountain peak or summit.

1. n. a broad highway designed for high-speed traffic [syn: expressway, freeway, motorway, state highway, superhighway, throughway, thruway]

2. highly valued northern freshwater fish with lean flesh

3. a sharp point (as on the end of a spear)

4. medieval weapon consisting of a spearhead attached to a long pole or pikestaff; superseded by the bayonet

5. any of several elongate long-snouted freshwater game and food fishes widely distributed in cooler parts of the northern hemisphere

Pike, Pikes or The Pike may refer to:

A pike is a pole weapon, a very long thrusting spear formerly used extensively by infantry. Unlike many similar weapons, the pike is not intended to be thrown. Pikes were used regularly in European warfare from the early Middle Ages until around 1700, and were wielded by foot soldiers deployed in close quarters. The pike found extensive use with Landsknecht armies and Swiss mercenaries, who employed it as their main weapon and used it in pike square formations. A similar weapon, the sarissa, was also used by Alexander the Great's Macedonian phalanx infantry to great effect. Generally, a spear becomes a pike when it is too long to be wielded with one hand in combat.

The Pike stream cipher was invented by Ross Anderson to be a "leaner and meaner" version of FISH after he broke FISH in 1994; the name is a humorous allusion to the Pike fish. The cipher combines ideas from A5 with the Lagged Fibonacci generators used in FISH. It is about 10% faster than FISH, yet believed to be much stronger. It potentially has a huge key length, and no attacks have been published .

''' Pike ''' is a variety of potato released by the Cornell and Pennsylvania Experimental Stations in March 1996. This clone originated from a cross made in 1981 between Allegany and Atlantic potato varieties. It is resistant to infection by golden nematode, common scab, golden necrosis, and foliage infection by Phytophthora. Pike is intended to be used agriculturally, specifically for use in potato chips.

Pike (first name and dates unknown) was an English first-class cricketer associated with Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) who was active in the 1800s. He is recorded in one match, totalling 9 runs with a highest score of 9.

Pike is an interpreted, general-purpose, high-level, cross-platform, dynamic programming language, with a syntax similar to that of C. Unlike many other dynamic languages, Pike is both statically and dynamically typed, and requires explicit type definitions. It features a flexible type system that allows the rapid development and flexible code of dynamically typed languages, while still providing some of the benefits of a statically typed language.

Pike features garbage collection, advanced data types, and first-class anonymous functions, with support for many programming paradigms, including object-oriented, functional and imperative programming. Pike is free software, released under the GPL, LGPL and MPL licenses.

Pike is a common surname of English origin.

In the United States, Pike is the 1138th most common surname (based on the 1990 census). In England and Wales, it is the 513th most common surname (based on a Sept 2002 database of the Office for National Statistics). In Newfoundland, Pike is especially common, ranking 22nd among all surnames there (based on the 1955 voters list, as reported by E.R. Seary in "Family Names of the Island of Newfoundland"). At the time of the British Census of 1881, its relative frequency was highest in Wiltshire (7.3 times the British average), followed by Dorset, Devon, Somerset, Berkshire, Hampshire, Nottinghamshire, Gloucestershire, the Channel Islands and Surrey. It is interesting to note that the area of highest relative frequency corresponds roughly to the ancient Kingdom of Wessex and that the first six counties of highest relative frequency are totally identical with Thomas Hardy's Wessex. Pike may thus with good reason be characterized as a "Wessex name".

Genealogists tracking the surname using DNA analysis have identified 46 "genetically different Pike family lines". The surname has many variations such as Pikes, Pykes, McPike, Picke, Pique along with Speight.

The Pike is a precision-guided munition (PGM) designed by Raytheon. It is a 40 mm guided munition that can be fired from the barrel of an M320 Grenade Launcher Module and Enhanced Grenade Launching Module (EGLM) like a standard 40mm grenade, but is powered by a rocket motor to propel it to give infantrymen extended-range precision capabilities unlike anything before in a hand-held weapon. The weapon uses a digital, semi-active laser seeker to guide itself to within 5 meters of the target; it can operate in a two-man shooter/spotter team or by the grenadier alone lazing after firing, as it can fly for 15 seconds before homing in. When fired, Pike has a small propellant to "kick" it out of the tube before the nearly smokeless motor ignites, and range is dependent on firing angle. The munition is effective against fixed and slow-moving mid-range targets, using a blast fragmentation warhead with a 10-meter lethality radius. Raytheon developed the weapon for three years in collaboration with Nammo Talley, which developed the warhead and propulsion system. The Pike is intended to be more accurate with a longer range than rocket propelled grenades (RPGs) and standard grenades, while being far lighter and more cost-effective than current infantry guided weapons like the FGM-148 Javelin. Further improvements could include different fuses, multiple-round simultaneous programming and targeting with data-link capabilities, and platform integration onto small boats, vehicles, and small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Pike weighs and is long, too long to fit in the breech of the M203 grenade launcher. At AUSA 2015, Raytheon revealed they had performed two successful test firings of the Pike.