Other forms: spikes
A spike is a long sharp piece of metal or wood. Iron spikes, a spike through it, spikes on the wall.
As a verb it means to add alcohol or a drug to a drink, which is a serious offence, and to spike a story is to stop it being published — from the metal spike editors once impaled rejected copy on. A spike in a graph is a sudden sharp rise. Note that the word is Norse.
1nounspikeA long sharp piece of metal or wood.
“Iron spikes along the top of the gate stopped anyone from climbing over.”
2nounsuddenA sudden sharp rise.
“Hospitals saw a spike in cases of flu after the cold weather arrived.”
spike is a sharp point, or a sudden rise.
Old Norse spik means a spike or sprig, from a Germanic root about points. Spoke and spine belong to related roots.
Proto-Indo-European
*spey- — to be pointed; sharp point, stick
Proto-Germanic
*spīkō — stick, splinter, point
Old Norse
spík — spike, sprig
Middle English
spike
English, today
spike
From Middle English spike, spyke, spik, from Old Norse spík (“spike, sprig”), from Proto-Germanic spīkō (“stick, splinter, point”), from Proto-Indo-European spey- (“to be pointed; sharp point, stick”). Cognate with Icelandic spík (“spike”), Swedish spik (“spike, nail”), Dutch spijker (“nail”), Old English spīcing (“spike”), and Latin spīca (“ear of corn”), which may have influenced some senses.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA