pike

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A mid-air position in sports such as diving and gymnastics in which the athlete bends to touch the feet or grab the calves or back of the thighs while keeping the legs together and straight.
• noun A spike or sharp point, as on the tip of a spear.
• noun A hill with a pointed summit.
• noun A turnpike.
• noun A tollgate on a turnpike.
• noun A toll paid.
• intransitive verb To move quickly.
• idiom (come down the pike) To come into prominence.
• noun A long spear formerly used by infantry.
• transitive verb To attack or pierce with a pike.
• noun A freshwater game and food fish (Esox lucius) of the Northern Hemisphere that has a long snout and attains a length of over 1.2 meters (4 feet).
• noun Any of various fishes closely related to this fish, such as the muskellunge or the pickerels.
• noun Any of various fishes that resemble this fish.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To pick or pluck.
• To pick or choose; select; cull.
• To bring to a point; taper.
• To pick or peck, as a hawk smoothing its feathers.
• noun A turnpike; a turnpike road.
• To go rapidly.
• An obsolete form of pick, pitch.
• To peep; peek.
• noun An obsolete form of pique.
• noun A fish of the genus Esox, or of the family Esocidæ.
• noun Some other slender fish with a long snout, or otherwise resembling the pike proper (def. 1).
• noun The common pickerel, Esox reticulatus.
• noun The lizard-fish, Synodus fætens.
• noun A chilodopterid fish, Dinolestes lewini.
• To bet very small amounts here and there all over the lay-out, usually following in the wake of some player who is betting heavily.
• noun A sharp point; a spike. Specifically ,
• noun A thorn; a prickle.
• noun The pointed end of a shoe, such as were formerly in fashion, called piked shoon, cra-cows, etc. See cut under cracow.
• noun A staff or shaft having at the end a sharp point or tip, usually of iron or steel.
• noun A sharp-pointed weapon consisting of a long shaft or handle with an iron head. It has been in use from ancient times, but the word dates apparently from the fifteenth century. About that period, and for some time later, it was the arm of a large part of the infantry, and was from 15 to 20 feet long. It continued in use, although reduced in length, throughout the seventeenth century, and was replaced by the bayonet as the latter was improved. It was retained in the British army until a very late date as a mere ensign of rank. (See half-pike and spontoon.) The pike has always been the arm of hastily levied and unequipped soldiers; thousands were used in the French revolution. Such pikes have usually a round conical head, a mere ferrule of thin iron bent into that form, but long, sharp-pointed, and formidable. The pike of regular warfare had sometimes a round, sometimes a flat or spear-like head.
• noun A weapon which replaced for a short time the simple pointed pike; it had an ax-blade on one side and a pointed beak or hook on the other. In this form it was retained in the French army as a badge of rank as late as the first empire.
• noun A pitchfork used by farmers.
• noun A sharp-pointed hill or mountain summit; a peak.
• noun A point of land; a gore.
• noun A large cock of hay.
• noun Same as pikeman, 1.
• noun A measure of length, originally based on the length of the weapon so called.
• noun A piker.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun (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.
• noun A pointed head or spike; esp., one in the center of a shield or target.
• noun Obs. or Prov. Eng. A hayfork.
• noun Prov. Eng. A pick.
• noun rare A pointed or peaked hill.
• noun Prov. Eng. A large haycock.
• noun A turnpike; a toll bar.
• noun (Zoöl.) 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.