Word.ws English Dictionary

hand-spike

hand-spike is the alternative form of handspike.

Meaning of handspike

Noun

handspike (plural handspikes)

  1. A bar or lever, generally of wood, used in a windlass or capstan, for heaving anchor, and, in modified forms, for various purposes.
    • I would not take a rood of land from Frederic to be appointed to a man-of-war to-morrow morning, for I looked on it as his (God grant it may be long ere he touch it!) ever since I was the height of a handspike.1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXIII, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 292

Forms of hand-spike

pluralhand-spikes

Questions about hand-spike

What is hand-spike the alternative form of?
Hand-spike is the alternative form of handspike.

Words near hand-spike in the dictionary

  1. hand-sitter
  2. hand-sitters
  3. hand-sling
  4. hand-slings
  5. hand-sold
  6. hand-spike
  7. hand-spikes
  8. hand-spring
  9. hand-springs
  10. hand-stitched
  11. hand-tab

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hand-spike (page history and authors); handspike (page history and authors). 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.

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Cite this entry: “hand-spike.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hand-spike. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.