1. A large uail; always in American applied to a nail or pin of metal. A similar thing made of word is called a peg or pin. In England, it is sometimes used for a sharp point of wood.
2. An ear of corn or grain. It is applied to the heads of wheat, rye and barley; and is particularly applicable to the ears of maiz.
3. A shoot.
4. [L. spica.] In botany, a species of inflorescence, in which sessile flowers are alternate on a common simple peduncle, as in wheat and rye, lavender, _c.
SPIKE, n. A smaller species of lavender.
SPIKE, v.t.
1. To fasten with spikes or long and large nails; as, to spike down the planks of a floor or bridge.
2. To set with spikes. A youth leaping over the spiked pales-was caught by the spikes. [Unusual.]
3. To stop the vent with spikes; as, to spike cannon.
