piking

Verb (1)

pike (third-person singular simple present pikes, present participle piking, simple past and past participle piked)

1. (transitive) To prod, attack, or injure someone with a pike.
   • Soon after the general marched from Kilcullen, the rebels plundered all the houſes of the proteſtants in it and its vicinity, and murdered ſuch of the inhabitants as could not make their eſcape. […] They piked out one eye of a Mrs. Burchell, aged ninety; they alſo aſſaſſinated ſome wounded ſoldiers...1801, Richard Musgrave, “The Breaking-out of the Rebellion”, in Memoirs of the Different Rebellions in Ireland, […], Dublin: Printed by Robert Marchbank, for John Milliken, […] and John Stockdale...
2. (ambitransitive) To assume a pike position.
   • In the early stages he can do this by bending at the elbows (no more than 90) as he pikes the legs and straightens the arms in co-ordination with the upward swing of the cast, so that the whole body is extended as he reaches handstand.1979, Peter Tatlow, editor, Gymnastics: All the Beauty and Skills of This Thrilling Sport, Auckland: McGraw-Hill, →ISBN
3. (intransitive) To bet or gamble with only small amounts of money.
   • I put the temporary squinch on the rum bug when I got there and piked along at a ten-cent table with the last two dollars I had.1900, Clarence Louis Cullen, Tales of the Ex-tanks: A Book of Hard-luck Stories, New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap […], →OCLC, page 339
4. (Australia, New Zealand, intransitive, slang) Often followed by on or out: to quit or back out of a promise.
   • Don’t pike on me like you did last time!

Verb (2)

pike (third-person singular simple present pikes, present participle piking, simple past and past participle piked)

1. (intransitive) To equip with a turnpike.
   • Now suppose we commence and pike one mile of road in every township in this county each year,[…]. The saving on what was piked the years before would be such that you would be able to pay into the treasury only the amount that you did the first year.1889, “To What Extent is Macadamizing Practicable. (A Discussion at the Washington Institute.)”, in Agriculture of Pennsylvania, […], Harrisburg, Pa.: Edwin K. Meyers, state printer, →OCLC, page 381
2. (UK, intransitive, obsolete, thieves' cant) To depart or travel (as if by a turnpike), especially to flee, to run away.
   • Joe sold his sand, and cly'd his cole, sir [marginal note: pocketed his money] / While Bess got a basket of rags, / Then up to St. Giles's they roll'd, sir, / To every bunter Bess brags: / Into a booze-ken they pike it, [marginal note: go] / Where Bess was admitted we hear; / For none of the coves...a. 1789, G[eorge] Parker (?), collected and annotated by John S[tephen] Farmer, “The Sandman’s Wedding”, in Musa Pedestris. Three Centuries of Canting Songs and Slang Rhymes [1536–1896], [s.l.]...

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