spike
verb/spaɪk/
/spaɪk/
Verb Forms
Idioms | present simple I / you / we / they spike | /spaɪk/ /spaɪk/ |
| he / she / it spikes | /spaɪks/ /spaɪks/ |
| past simple spiked | /spaɪkt/ /spaɪkt/ |
| past participle spiked | /spaɪkt/ /spaɪkt/ |
| -ing form spiking | /ˈspaɪkɪŋ/ /ˈspaɪkɪŋ/ |
- [transitive] spike somebody/something (on something) to push a sharp piece of metal, wood, etc. into somebody/something; to injure something on a sharp point synonym stab
- [transitive] spike something (with something) to add alcohol, poison or a drug to somebody’s drink or food without them knowing
- He gave her a drink spiked with tranquillizers.
- (figurative) Her words were spiked with malice.
- She suspected that her drink had been spiked.
- [transitive] spike something to reject something that a person has written or said; to prevent something from happening or being made public
- The article was spiked for fear of legal action against the newspaper.
- [intransitive] spike (to something) (especially North American English) to rise quickly and reach a high value
- The US dollar spiked to a three-month high.
Word Originverb Middle English: perhaps from Middle Low German, Middle Dutch spiker, related to spoke. The verb dates from the early 17th cent.
Idioms
See spike in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionaryspike somebody’s guns
- (British English) to cause the plans of an opponent to fail
Check pronunciation:
spike