What is "spike"

Spike \Spike\, n. [Akin to LG. spiker, spieker, a large nail, D. spijker, Sw. spik, Dan. spiger, Icel. sp[=i]k; 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 U. latifolia) having broad leaves and large flattened spikelets.

   Spike rush. (Bot.) See under Rush.

   Spike shell (Zo["o]l.), 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.

Spike \Spike\, v. 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 \Spike\, n. [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.

1620s, "to fasten with spikes," from spike (n.1). Meaning "to rise in a spike" is from 1958. Military sense (1680s) means "to disable guns by driving a large nail into the touch-hole." Figurative use of this sense is from 1823. Meaning "to lace (a drink) with liquor" is from 1889. Journalism sense of "to kill a story before publication" (1908) is from the metal spindle in which old-time editors filed hard copy of stories after they were set in type, or especially when rejected for publication. Related: Spiked; spiking.

"large nail," mid-14c., perhaps from or related to a Scandinavian word, such as Old Norse spik "splinter," Middle Swedish spijk "nail," from Proto-Germanic *spikaz (cognates: Middle Dutch spicher, Dutch spijker "nail," Old English spicing "large nail," Old English spaca, Old High German speihha "spoke"), from PIE root *spei- "sharp point" (cognates: Latin spica "ear of corn," spina "thorn, prickle, backbone," and perhaps pinna "pin" (see pin (n.)); Greek spilas "rock, cliff;" Lettish spile "wooden fork;" Lithuanian speigliai "thorns," spitna "tongue of a buckle," Old English spitu "spit").\n

\nThe English word also might be influenced by and partly a borrowing of Latin spica (see spike (n.2)), from the same root. Slang meaning "needle" is from 1923. Meaning "pointed stud in athletic shoes" is from 1832. Electrical sense of "pulse of short duration" is from 1935.

"ear of grain," c.1300, from Latin spica "ear of grain," from PIE *spei-ko-, from suffixed form of root *spei- "sharp point" (see spine).

n. 1 A sort of very large nail; also, a piece of pointed iron set with points upward/outward. 2 Anything resembling such a nail in shape. 3 An ear of corn or grain. 4 (context botany English) A kind of inflorescence in which sessile flowers are arranged on an unbranched elongated axis. 5 (''in plural'' '''spikes'''; ''informal'') running shoes with spikes in the soles. 6 A sharp peak in a graph. 7 The long, narrow part of a woman's high-heeled shoe that elevates the heel. 8 (context volleyball English) An attack from, usually, above the height of the net performed with the intent to send the ball straight to the floor of the opponent or off the hands of the opposing block. 9 (context zoology English) An adolescent male deer. 10 a surge in power. 11 (slang) The casual ward of a workhouse. 12 spike lavender vb. 1 To covertly put alcohol or another intoxicating substance into a drink. 2 To add a small amount of one substance to another. 3 (context volleyball English) To attack from, usually, above the height of the net with the intent to send the ball straight to the floor of the opponent or off the hands of the opposing block. 4 (context military English) To render (a gun) unusable by driving a metal spike into its touch hole. 5 (context journalism English) To decide not to publish or make public. 6 To prevent or frustrate. 7 To increase sharply. 8 To fasten with spikes, or long, large nails. 9 To set or furnish with spikes. 10 To fix on a spike. 11 (''football slang'') To slam the football to the ground, usually in celebration of scoring a touchdown, or to stop expiring time on the game clock after snapping the ball as to save time for the losing team to attempt to score the tying or winning points.

1. n. a transient variation in voltage or current

2. sports equipment consisting of a sharp point on the sole of a shoe worn by athletes; "spikes provide greater traction"

3. fruiting spike of a cereal plant especially corn [syn: ear, capitulum]

4. (botany) an indeterminate inflorescence bearing sessile flowers on an unbranched axis

5. a sharp rise followed by a sharp decline; "the seismograph showed a sharp spike in response to the temblor"

6. a sharp-pointed projection along the top of a fence or wall

7. a long sharp-pointed implement (wood or metal)

8. any holding device consisting of a long sharp-pointed object

9. a long metal nail

1. v. stand in the way of

2. pierce with a sharp stake or point; "impale a shrimp on a skewer" [syn: transfix, impale, empale]

3. secure with spikes

4. bring forth a spike or spikes; "my hyacinths and orchids are spiking now" [syn: spike out]

5. add alcohol beverages [syn: lace, fortify]

6. manifest a sharp increase; "the voltage spiked"

Spike, spikes, or spiking may refer to:

Spike (formerly and popularly known as Spike TV) is an American basic cable and satellite television channel that is owned by Viacom Music and Entertainment Group, a unit of the Viacom Media Networks division of Viacom. Spike is a general entertainment channel featuring a mix of various programs and movies, primarily oriented towards a male audience.

Spike's programming reaches approximately 98.7 million pay television subscribers in the United States as well as Canada. As of 2006, Spike's viewers were almost half women (45%), although many of them are reported to be watching it with male partners or family members, or were watching the CSI franchise. The average age of the channel's viewers was 42 years old.

As of February 2015, approximately 93.4 million households in the U.S. (80% of those with television) receive Spike.

Spike is a studio album by PUFFY released in 2001, it is their first North American album.

Spike is the 12th studio album by the British rock singer and songwriter Elvis Costello, released on compact disc as Warner Brothers 25848. It was his first album for the label. It peaked at No. 5 on the UK album chart. It also reached No. 32 on the Billboard 200 thanks to the single and his most notable American hit, "Veronica," which reached No. 19 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No.1 on the US Modern Rock chart.

Spike was a British comics anthology that ran from 22 January 1983 to 28 April 1984. Published by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd, it was a traditional 'action comic for boys', with many of its strips revolving around football, athletics, school, war, sci-fi, espionage and mystery. After just 67 issues it merged with Champ comic in May 1984.

was a former Japanese video game developer and publisher. Most of the staff were part of Human Entertainment. Human's Fire Pro Wrestling series is owned by Spike. In April 2012, the company merged with ChunSoft to become Spike Chunsoft.

Spike, played by James Marsters, is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Spike is a vampire and played various roles on the shows, including villain, anti-hero, Trickster and lover. For Marsters, the role as Spike began a career in science fiction television, becoming "the obvious go-to guy for US cult [television]". For creator Whedon, Spike is the "most fully developed" of his characters. The character was intended to be a brief villain, with Whedon originally adamant to not have another major "romantic vampire" character like Angel. Marsters says "Spike was supposed to be dirty and evil, punk rock, and then dead." However, the character ended up staying for the second season, and then returning in the fourth to replace Cordelia as "the character who told Buffy she was stupid and about to die."

Within the series' narrative, William was an unsuccessful aspiring poet in the Victorian era who was mocked and called "William the Bloody" because of his "bloody awful" poetry. Sired by the vampire Drusilla ( Juliet Landau), William became an unusually passionate and romantic vampire, being very violent and ready to battle, but not as cruel as his companions. Alongside Drusilla, Darla ( Julie Benz) and Angelus ( David Boreanaz), Giles thinks William acquired the nickname Spike for his preferred method of torturing people with railroad spikes, but it is revealed it is because his poetry was 'so bad you could stick a railroad spike through your head'. He was noted for killing two vampire Slayers; one at the end of the 1800s during the Boxer Rebellion, the other in 1970s New York, where Spike acquired his trademark leather duster. During the second season of the series, Spike comes to Sunnydale hoping to kill a third Slayer, Buffy Summers ( Sarah Michelle Gellar), with whom he later forges an uneasy alliance. Over the course of Buffy, Spike falls in love with the Slayer, reacquires his soul to prove himself to Buffy and dies a hero in the show's series finale. He is subsequently resurrected in the fifth season of spin-off series Angel.

Considered a ' breakout character', Spike proved immensely popular with fans of Buffy. The character appears substantially in Expanded Universe materials such as comic books and tie-in novels. Following the cancellation of Angel in 2004, Whedon considered creating a Spike film spin-off. Canonically, the character appears in issues of the comic books Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight (2007–11), Angel: After the Fall (2007–09), Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine, Angel & Faith (both 2011–2013) and several Spike limited series, spinning off from both Buffy and Angel. Currently the character is in the canonical comic Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Ten (2014–present).

Spike is the first solo album by Japanese guitarist Agata of the band Melt-Banana. It was released on Tzadik in May 2004.

The album consists mainly of solo guitar and sound effects. Agata is known for creating strange soundscapes with his guitar and often sounds nothing like a guitar. This album could be seen as an extra addition to Melt-Banana's discography as it shares many similarities to his guitarwork in Melt-Banana. The album also sounds similar to "Outro For Cell-Scape" on Melt-Banana's previous album Cell-Scape, with most of the songs (e.g. "Frontside Boardslide Shovit out" or "Nollie Crooked Grind") being named after popular skateboard tricks.

Spike is the name of several fictional characters in Marvel Comics. They are not to be confused with Spyke from X-Men: Evolution, nor with Spike Freeman, another character in the groups X-Statix and X-Force.

Spike (Darian Elliott) is a character in the series X-Statix from Marvel Comics.

Spike (Gary Walsh) is a character from New X-Men, who first appeared in issue #126 of that title. He was a student at the Xavier Institute before M-Day.

A similar character appeared in the film X-Men: The Last Stand, played by Lance Gibson.

Mark Williams more commonly known as Spike or Spike Williams is a Welsh guitarist and co-founder of South Wales' record label, Z Block Records. He was a member of the Cardiff-based band Reptile Ranch.

Jonathan Gray (born 4 February 1968), known professionally as Spike (sometimes also known as Spike Gray), is an English rock frontman, songwriter and vocalist, known for his times with The Quireboys with whom he has released seven studio albums to date.

The following people and animals have the given name or nickname Spike:

Spike may refer to any of the following fictional characters:

Spike/Butch was a short-lived animation cartoon series by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The title character was also a recurring antagonist in the Droopy shorts. His name was changed to Butch to avoid confusion with Spike from the Tom and Jerry cartoons. All of the original, 1940s-1950s shorts were directed by Tex Avery.

Spike is a 2008 horror-romance directed by Robert Beaucage, produced by String And A Can Productions, and starring Edward Gusts, Sarah Livingston Evans, Anna-Marie Wayne, Nancy P. Corbo, and Jared Edwards. The film has been described by Robert Hope as " Angela Carter rewriting La Belle et la Bête as an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

In stagecraft, a spike is a marking, usually made with a piece of tape (although some houses ( theatres) use paint pens), put on or around the stage. This marking is used to show the correct position for set pieces, furniture, actors and other items which move during the course of a performance and are required to stop or be placed in a specific location.

Several companies make rolls of very thin gaffer's or paper tape marketed as "spike tape" specifically for placing spikes. In a pinch, gaffer, masking or Electrical tape can be used. When used to indicate locations under dark conditions, phosphorescent tape (sometimes referred to as "glow tape") is used for practical and safety reasons. Performer spikes are generally only used when positioning needs to be precise, either for safety or performance reasons, such as lighting specials.

Spike is an Israeli fourth generation man-portable fire-and-forget anti-tank guided missile and anti-personnel missile with a tandem-charged HEAT warhead, developed and designed by the Israeli company Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. As of 2016, some 25,600 missiles of the Spike family have been sold to 25 nations.

As well as engaging and destroying targets within the line-of-sight of the launcher ("fire-and-forget"), some variants of the missile are capable of making a top-attack profile through a "fire, observe and update" guidance method; the operator tracking the target, or switching to another target, optically through the trailing fiber-optic wire (or RF link in the case of the vehicle-mounted, long-range NLOS variant) while the missile is climbing to altitude after launch. This is similar to the lofted trajectory flight profile of the US FGM-148 Javelin.

Spike was a lop-eared yellow Mastador ( Labrador Retriever/ Mastiff mix) and a dog actor best known for his performance as Old Yeller in the 1957 Disney film of the same name co-starring Tommy Kirk, Dorothy McGuire, Fess Parker, and Kevin Corcoran. Spike was rescued as a pup from a shelter in Van Nuys, California and became the pet and pupil of animal trainer Frank Weatherwax.

Spike also appeared as Patrasche in 20th Century Fox's A Dog of Flanders with Donald Crisp and David Ladd in 1959 and as King in the 1956 film, The She-Creature. In 1961, Spike was the star of " The Silent Call" playing as Pete with Roger Mobley, David McLean and Gail Russell; the entire movie focused on his efforts to reunite with his human family who had been forced to leave him behind while traveling from Nevada to California.

Various television episodes of the period in which Spike appeared included The Mickey Mouse Club, Lassie and The Westerner with Brian Keith.

In gridiron football, a spike of the ball is a play in which the quarterback intentionally throws the ball at the ground immediately after the snap. A spike is technically an incomplete pass, and therefore, it has the effect of stopping the clock and exhausting a down. A spike is performed when the offensive team is conducting a hurried drive near the end of the first half or of the game, and the game clock is still running in the aftermath of the previous play; as an incomplete pass the spike causes the referee to stop the game clock, and the offensive team will have a chance to huddle and plan the next play without losing scarce game-clock time.

A spike is not considered intentional grounding if it is done with the quarterback under center and immediately after the snap. No penalty is assessed.

Running a spike play presumes there will be at least one play by the same team immediately afterward, so it would not be done on fourth down; instead, a regular play would have to be run without a huddle.

In the 1998 Rose Bowl, Ryan Leaf spiked the ball and inadvertently ran the clock out on that play. In the 2012 Rose Bowl, Russell Wilson also ran the clock out on a spike ball play. In both cases, just before such spike, the clock was stopped with just 2 seconds left (while the sideline chains were being moved for 1st down, the usual procedure when playing under college football rules).

On October 18, 2014, Nick Montana, son of Joe Montana, spiked the ball on 4th down at almost the end of the 1st half of a game between his Tulane University and UCF, forcing a turnover; he erroneously believed his team had gained a 1st down.

In Canadian football, spike plays are legal but very rare. This is mainly because a final play is always run whenever the game clock expires while the ball is dead, rendering spike plays unnecessary. Also, the offence in Canadian football only receives three downs instead of four.

SPIKE (Signaling Pathways Integrated Knowledge Engine) is a database of highly curated interactions for particular human pathways. SPIKE was developed by Ron Shamir's computational biology group in cooperation with the group of Yosef Shiloh, an Israel Prize recipient for his research in systems biology, and the group of Karen B. Avraham, a leading researcher of human deafness, all from Tel-Aviv University.

Spike is a 1983 platform game for the Vectrex video game system. The character of Spike is considered a mascot of the Vectrex, being among the first video game mascots, and Spike is one of the earliest examples of voice synthesis in video games. Spike was ported to iOS in 2013 as part of the Vectrex Regeneration app.

In journalistic parlance, spiking refers to withholding a story from publication for reasons pertaining to its veracity (whether or not it conforms to the facts). Spiking is relatively rare and usually happens late in the editing process (after the assigning editor has signed off on it). It is only required when a simple edit or questioning the reporter or assigning editor cannot fix the problem.

Reasons for spiking include a clear bias (someone on an opposing side of an issue did not respond, despite the fact that said response is central to the story), a major hole (many, if not most, readers will have a question after reading the story), a sudden change in events (three more people have died, but getting details from officials is impossible on deadline), or suspicions of plagiarism or other ethical violations on the part of the author.

In some cases, a story may be spiked if it is deemed to conflict with the commercial interests of the newspaper's publisher: if, for example, it concerns a company with which the publisher has a close relationship. This is more likely at a local level, where small newspapers are dependent on advertising revenue from businesses such as estate agents and recruitment agencies.

Stories are spiked for other reasons, but the decision is not taken lightly, as a valid, usually detailed explanation will be solicited by those further up the chain of command, often at the behest of the reporter.

Spike is a comic book series published by IDW Publishing. Written by Brian Lynch, it focuses on the character of Spike, a main character in television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off, Angel. Uniquely, although this is a spin-off from IDW's larger Angel: After the Fall franchise, it also serves as a prequel to Dark Horse Comics' own Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight comic book series. As such, it is " canon" to the overall " Buffyverse" in which stories take place. Although originally intended as an ongoing series, the Angel rights transfer from IDW to Dark Horse caused the series end after eight issues.

Lynch had previously written for Spike in the comic books Spike: Asylum when Buffy and Angel creator Joss Whedon approached him to write the canonical continuation to Angel, After the Fall, in 2007. For Spike, Lynch is reunited with frequent collaborator, penciller Franco Urru. Because of the circumstances behind Dark Horse's use of the Angel character, Whedon offered Lynch use of a main character in the Buffy franchise, and Lynch adapted the storyline to bridge IDW's After the Fall with Dark Horse's Season Eight.

Spike is the surname of:

• John Spike (born 1951), American art historian, curator and author
• Michèle Kahn Spike, American lawyer, historian, and prominent lay figure in the Episcopalian church
• Paul Spike, American author, editor and journalist
• Robert W. Spike (1923–1966), American clergyman, theologian and civil rights leader

Spike is the nickname of:

• Spike Albrecht (born 1992), American college basketball player
• William H. P. Blandy (1890-1954), US Navy admiral
• William Eckert (1909-1971), US Air Force lieutenant general and fourth Commissioner of Major League Baseball
• Spike Feresten (born 1964), television writer and talk show host
• Spike Jones (1911-1965), American musician and bandleader
• Spike Jones (American football) (born 1947), American former National Football League punter
• Spike Lee (born 1957), American filmmaker
• Spike McRoy (born 1968), American golfer
• Spike Milligan (1918–2002), Irish satirist, creator of the The Goon Show
• William W. Momyer (1916-2012), US Air Force general and World War II flying ace
• Spike Pola (1914–2012), Australian rules footballer
• Spike Robinson (1930-2001), jazz musician
• Spike Spencer (born 1968), American voice actor
• Spike Stent (born 1965), English record producer and mixing engineer

Spike UK is a British digital television channel owned by Viacom International Media Networks Europe. Launching on 15 April 2015 on Freeview, it is a localised version of the American channel of the same name, and primarily airs entertainment programming geared towards a male audience, including import dramas, programming from its U.S. counterpart, and mixed martial arts.

A spike is a product-testing method that is used to determine how much work will be required to solve or work around a software issue. Typically, a 'spike test' involves gathering additional information or testing for easily reproduced edge-cases. The term is used in agile software development methodologies like Scrum or Extreme Programming.

Spike is Dutch television channel in the Netherlands and Flanders, based on the American channel of the same name. It is the third Spike channel next to the US and UK version of the channel. The television channel aimed at an audience of mainly men. In the Netherlands and Flanders, the channel started broadcasting on 1 October 2015. It broadcasts daily between 21:00 and 2:30, time-sharing with Nickelodeon. As a result, the program block TeenNick of Nickelodeon that has previously aired between 21:00 and 5:00 stopped on 1 October 2015. The time between 2:30 and 5:00 was taken over by Nickelodeon.