bike
/baɪk/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Canada/bɐɪk/
bike noun: any vehicle sharing some characteristics with a bicycle or motorbike, such as pedal power, a handlebar, or a saddle. Also the clipping of bicycle.
Noun (1)
bike (plural bikes)
- Any vehicle sharing some characteristics with a bicycle or motorbike, such as pedal power, a handlebar, or a saddle.
- He warmed up the engine; the bike hovered off the ground despite his weight and the extra equipment.2017 July 17, Nell's Tavern, Larry Brasington, page 50
- In 2017, Amsterdam banned beer bikes from the center of the Dutch city. About 6,000 locals signed a petition, calling on the council to outlaw the vehicles, referring to them as a “terrible phenomenon.”2021 May 18, Michael Hearst, Unconventional Vehicles: Forty-Five of the Strangest Cars, Trains, Planes, Submersibles, Dirigibles, and Rockets EVER, Chronicle Books, →ISBN, page 17
Verb
bike (third-person singular simple present bikes, present participle biking, simple past and past participle biked)
- To ride a bike.
- I biked so much yesterday that I'm very sore today.
- In the 1890’s “women were behind the stove,” he relates. But they cycled, too. “And they had difficulty pedalling bicycles with ankle-length skirts. “At the time,” Taylor said, “the most sinful thing a woman could do was to show light between her legs. “The original culotte was designed by a LAW...1975 April 17, Jack Weatherly, “Dallas or Bust”, in The Courier News, volume 80, number 286, Blytheville, Ark., page 8, column 3
- To travel by bike.
- It was such a nice day I decided to bike to the store, though it's far enough I usually take my car.
- He saw me catch a trap and leave the house of a drug dealer. That's why he targeted me. He could have easily blown my ass off right then and there for lying, but for some reason he didn't. He just left. I biked back to my plug's spot and told him […]2017, Gucci Mane, Neil Martinez-Belkin, The Autobiography of Gucci Mane, page 32
- To transport by bicycle.
- I biked them the letters.
- Frank, a teenager, arrived at his grandfather’s shop to begin work as a butcher’s boy. The job would be to bike parcels of meat around Dronfield and the surrounding countryside between the cities of Sheffield and Chesterfield, right on the county border of Derbyshire and Yorkshire.2020 September 1, Tom Lamont, “The butcher's shop that lasted 300 years (give or take)”, in The Guardian
Noun (2)
bike (plural bikes)
- A hive of bees, or a nest of wasps, hornets, or ants.
- like blue bottle flees in a blink of sunshine, […]A bonny bike there’s o’ them!1818 July 25, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], Tales of My Landlord, Second Series, […] (The Heart of Mid-Lothian), volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh: […] [James...
- he stood for a minute talking to them about their job of gathering cones, and telling them a story about a tree he’d once climbed which had a wasp’s byke in it unbeknown to him.1955, Robin Jenkins, The Cone-Gatherers, Canongate, published 2012, page 107
- A crowd of people.
Also used as
bike is also the clipping of bicycle.
bike is also the clipping of motorbike.
bike is also the ellipsis of village bike.
bike meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu
bike in Tamil
- bicycle
- சைக்கிள் caikkiḷ
- motorcycle
- பைக் paik
bike in Urdu
- بائیک
bike in Bengali
- bicycle
- ঠেংগাড়ী ṭheṅgaṛi
bike in Telugu
- బైక్
More languagesFewer languages
- bike in Malayalam
- ബൈക്ക്
- bike in Kannada
- ಬೈಕ್
- bike in Punjabi
- ਮੋਟਰਸਾਈਕਲ moṭrasāīkal, ਬਾਈਕ bāīka, ਮੋਟਰਬਾਈਕ moṭrabāīka
- bike in Gujarati
- બાઇક
- bike in Odia
- ସାଇକେଲ sāikela, ମଟର ସାଇକେଲ maṭara sāikela
- bike in Sinhala
- යතුරුපැදිය yaturupædiya
- bike in Tagalog
- bisikleta
- bike in Indonesian
- sepeda, sepeda motor
- bike in Persian
- دوچرخه dočarxe
- bike in Thai
- จักรยาน jàk-grà-yaan, มอเตอร์ไซค์ mɔɔ-dtəə-sai
- bike in Vietnamese
- xe đạp, xe máy, xe gắn máy, đạp xe
- Sindhi
- سائيڪل sāekl, موٽر سائيڪل moṭr sāekl
Examples of bike in a sentence
- While biking home, he got in an argument with the pavement.
- I ride to work every day and park the bike outside the office.
- The fork can be equipped with a suspension on mountain bikes.
Synonyms of bike
Forms of bike
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | bikes |
| alternative form | byke |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | bikes |
| present participle | biking |
| past participle | biked |
| past | biked |
Origin of bike
Clipping of bicycle. First attested in 1882. One explanation for the form with /k/ is that bicycle was parsed to bi(cy)c(le). An alternative explanation is that it was parsed to bic(ycle) but since speakers are aware of a general /k/~/s/ alternation (as in electric ~ electricity etc.), the softened /s/ was restored to a default /k/ when the “ending” -ycle was dropped. Similar cases are merc /mɜɹk/, spec /spɛk/ for mercenary, specify. It seems unlikely, however, that this process is purely phonological and not at least partially based on the spelling ⟨c⟩.
From Middle English bike, byke (“a nest of wild bees or wasps; also, honeycomb”), of unknown origin. Perhaps a back-formation of Middle English *bykere (“beekeeper”), from Old English bēocere (“beekeeper”); or from Old English *bȳc, a byform of Old English būc (“belly; vessel; container”). Compare also Scots byke (“beehive, anthill; home, dwelling”), Old Norse bý (“bee”).
Words formed from bike
- antibike
- aquabike
- aqua bike
- balance bike
- bar bike
- beer bike
- bikable
- bike-and-ride
- bikeathon
- bike box
- bike cab
- bike chain
- bikefishing
- bike fork
- bike jockey strap
- bike lane
- bikelash
- bike-lash
- bikeless
- bike lift
- bikelike
- bikelock
- bike lock
- bikemaker
- bike motocross
- bikepacker
- bikepacking
- bike path
- bikeporn
- bike pump
- biker
- bike rack
- bike ride
- bikeroad
- bikery
- bikeshare
- bike shed
- bikeshed
- bike-shedding
- bike stand
- bike staple
- bike station
- biketard
- bike taxi
- bike throw
- bikeway
- bikewear
- bikie
- bikey
- BMX bike
- Boris bike
- box bike
- Christ on a bike
- comfort bike
- conference bike
- dirtbike
- e-bike
- exercise bike
- ghost bike
- gravel bike
Phrases with bike
- fat bike
- pit bike
- rat bike
- run bike
- ski bike
- bike cabs
- dirt bike
- fire bike
- hand bike
- push bike
- quad bike
- road bike
43 more phrasesFewer phrases
- snow bike
- spin bike
- town bike
- bike boxes
- bike lanes
- bike lifts
- bike locks
- bike paths
- bike pumps
- bike racks
- bike rides
- bike sheds
- bike taxis
- cargo bike
- cross bike
- party bike
- sport bike
- track bike
- trail bike
- water bike
- bike chains
- bike stands
- bike throws
- lady's bike
- monkey bike
- on yer bike
- pocket bike
- racing bike
- street bike
- bike staples
- e-cargo bike
- on your bike
- utility bike
- village bike
- bike stations
- electric bike
- mountain bike
- off-road bike
- spinning bike
- stationary bike
- bike jockey straps
- like riding a bike
- if my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a bike
Words that rhyme with bike
Questions about bike
- What does bike mean?
- Bike means any vehicle sharing some characteristics with a bicycle or motorbike, such as pedal power, a handlebar, or a saddle.
- What is bike in Tamil?
- Bike in Tamil is சைக்கிள் (caikkiḷ), பைக் (paik). See Bike meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is bike?
- Bike can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce bike?
- Bike is pronounced /baɪk/.
- What is the plural of bike?
- The plural of bike is bikes.
Words near bike in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: bike (page history and authors); bike (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bike (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bike (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bike (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bike (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-bike.ogg.
Cite this entry: “bike.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bike. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.