How to use spike in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb

Spike means a sort of very large nail. Example: “The trap was lined with spikes.”

Examples of spike by meaning

nounA piece of pointed metal etc. set with points upward or outward.

The trap was lined with spikes.

nounA surge in power or in the price of a commodity, etc.; any sudden and brief change that would be represented by a sharp...

If the border were shut down, consumers would most likely see an immediate spike in food prices, and supplies of fresh food could dwindle from grocery store shelves in a matter of days.2019 April 1, Ana Swanson, “Avocado shortages and price spikes: How Trump’s border closing would hit U.S.”, in The New York Times, New...
As well as the boom in off-peak leisure numbers, "there has been a big spike in passenger assistance - that's really taken off as well", he continues.2023 November 1, Nick Brodrick talks to Jason Cocker, “A Station that ‘Oozes’ Customer Service …”, in RAIL, number 995, pages 52-53

nounA long nail for storing papers by skewering them; (by extension) the metaphorical place where rejected newspaper...

Most of my stories ended up on the spike.2005, David Bouchier, Writer at Work: Reflections on the Art and Business of Writing, iUniverse, →ISBN

nounThe casual ward of a workhouse.

Dere's tay spikes, and cocoa spikes, and skilly spikes.1933 January 9, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Down and Out in Paris and London, London: Victor Gollancz […], →OCLC, page 189

nounSpike lavender.

oil of spike

nounA mark indicating where a prop or other item should be placed on stage.

Sometimes actors set props on the spikes, or sometimes a deckhand will do it, depending on the action of the play.2020, John Ramsey Holloway, Zachary Stribling, Illustrated Theatre Production Guide, page 15

nounA small project that uses the simplest possible program to explore potential solutions.

An architectural spike is used to prove that a specific technical approach works.2017, Andrew Stellman, Jennifer Greene, Head First Agile […] , O'Reilly Media, →ISBN

verbTo fasten with spikes, or long, large nails.

to spike down planks

More sentences with spike

We got him drunk by spiking the punch.From the entry get drunk
“We haven't seen temperatures spike like this in a thousand years, since the Cimatastrophe!”2025 September 15, Maiya Williams, “The World is Hot Enough” (7:16 from the start), in Futurama, season 10, episode 2, spoken by Professor…. From the entry climatastrophe
Unlike Thessalos, the name Hippokrates displays a slight spike in popularity only in the third century BC.2024, Emma Aston, “Re-creations of Thessaly in the early Hellenistic period”, in Blessed Thessaly: The Identities of a Place and Its…. From the entry Hippokrates
Made from iron, it had spikes across the tongue and acted as a muzzle.2024 June 4, Flavia Kate Peters, Barbara Meiklejohn-Free, 2025 Witch's Diary - Northern Hemisphere: Seasonal Planner to Reclaiming the…. From the entry witch's bridle
In other words, jack, Mira thought, in a spike of furious resentment against herself.2023, Eleanor Catton, Birnam Wood, page 72. From the entry jack
But it did spike a year ago during the mayfly premiership of Liz Truss.2023 October 7, Jim Pickard, “It’s not government that creates jobs”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times…. From the entry mayfly
Other neuron models exist which us mathematical abstractions to model the dynamics of various spiking behaviors.2023, Nitish V. Thakor, Handbook of Neuroengineering, page 1466. From the entry spiking
China is seeing a spike in cases due to domestic travel in the past month.2021 November 11, “Coronavirus digest: Germany reports new record-high case numbers”, in Deutsche Welle, archived from the original on 12…. From the entry Chaoyang
Leaders in Lewisville are addressing concerns over a recent spike in violent crime.2019 March 2, Seth Voorhees, “Lewisville Police Address Concerns Over Crime Spike”, in NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth, archived from the original…. From the entry Lewisville
The river bent around acres of mud pocked with knots of grass and cattail spikes.2015 May 1, Patrick Dobson, Canoeing the Great Plains: A Missouri River Summer, U of Nebraska Press, →ISBN, page 128. From the entry solid
With her pocket knife, she starts to prise the spikes from his wings.2014, Moira Young -, Raging Star, →ISBN. From the entry fergawdsake
A spike of white bone peekabooed through the flesh of his wrist and blood spurted.2013, Stan Timmons, Ammon's Horn. From the entry peekaboo
Torch Lily (Kniphofia) Set off floral fireworks with torch lily's towering spikes.2010 December 28, Better Homes & Gardens, Better Homes & Gardens Perennial Gardening, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 269. From the entry torch lily
Pivot the saw, using the saw's dogs (spikes) as a fulcrum.2009, ForestWorks, Chainsaw Operator's Manual, page 41. From the entry dog
The Iron Lady has iron spikes and I don't need holes for air-conditioning my body.2008, Ginger Reid-Parker, D. H. Reid, Stepping Stones to Injustice, →ISBN, page 438. From the entry iron lady
A mixture of Poisson processes will have a spike count described by a mixture of Poisson distributions.2007, “4: Order Statistics for Decoding of Spike Trains”, in Kenji Doya, Shin Ashii, Alexandre Pouget, Rajesh P. N. Rao, editors, Bayesian…. From the entry Poisson distribution
George was headed for some dangerous antipigeon spikes on top of a skyscraper.2005, Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld, Margret Rey, Curious George the Movie: A Junior Novel. From the entry antipigeon
Labour is known to be worried about the Cameron effect and might attempt to spike his guns.2005 November 8, John Crace, The Guardian. From the entry spike someone's guns
Machine automatically unspikes the old bag and spikes the new bag .1994, FDA Enforcement Report, page 6. From the entry unspike
An unblooped splice can cause a large signal spike, which blows out the voice coil.1991, Tony Zaza, Mechanics of sound recording, page 372. From the entry unblooped
A dwarf, tufted, grayish plant with short spikes of pink-rose bilateral flowers nestled among the leaves.1979, Richard Spellenberg, “Shaggy Tuft (Stenandrium barbatum)”, in The Audubon Society field guide to North American wildflowers, western…. From the entry shaggytuft
Startup of reactor recirculating pump resulted in flux spike scraming plant.1978, “Appendix II—Answers to Written Questions Posed to Nuclear Regulatory Commission before the Hearings”, in Nuclear Regulatory…. From the entry scram
Drive the spike through the gutter bead, ferrule and fascia board into the rafter.1969 September, Richard Day, “How to Install Gutters and Downspots”, in Robert P. Crossley, editor, Popular Mechanics, volume 132, number…. From the entry ferrule
But it was spikier and it had other spikes curving down—it rested on three of them.1967 February, Algis Budrys, “The Iron Thorn”, in Frederik Pohl, editor, Worlds of IF Science Fiction, volume 17, number 2 (111 overall)…. From the entry spikey
If any spikes were left protruding in the morning the watchman had to give a satisfactory explanation.1915, Factory, the Magazine of Management, volume 14, page 233. From the entry quarter-hourly
Demi-chanfron, with central spike in the middle of the forehead, hinged crinière at the top.1901, Wallace Collection (London, England), Sir Guy Francis Laking, Catalogue of the European Armour and Arms in the Wallace Collection at…. From the entry mainfaire
In the year after the Olympics, Pyeongchang did experience a 22 percent spike in visitors, according to South Korean news organizations.2022 February 27, Kelly Kasulis Cho, “Pyeongchang Still Awaits Its Olympic Payoff”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the…. From the entry Pyeongchang
The teahouse culture in Taipei’s Wanhua district is responsible for the recent spike in Covid-19 infections, official figures suggest.2021 May 21, Lawrence Chung, “Taipei’s Covid-19 spike traced back to hostess teahouses”, in South China Morning Post, →ISSN, →OCLC…. From the entry Wanhua
Without its spikes, the pathogen can’t get into human cells.2020 July 28, Katherine J. Wu, “The Coronavirus Could Dodge Some Treatments, Study Suggests”, in The New York Times, →ISSN. From the entry spike protein
The goedendag was a four-foot-long wooden pole with a heavy round steel head capped with a six-inch spike.2019, Harry Pearson, The Beast, the Emperor and the Milkman: A Bone-shaking Tour through Cycling’s Flemish Heartlands, Bloomsbury…. From the entry goedendag
"The only thing I can see is there's a spike all across the country," Lewisville Police Chief Kevin Deaver said.2019 March 2, Seth Voorhees, “Lewisville Police Address Concerns Over Crime Spike”, in NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth, archived from the original…. From the entry Deaver

Meaning of spike

noun A sort of very large nail.
noun A piece of pointed metal etc. set with points upward or outward.
noun Anything resembling such a nail in shape.

Full definition of spike

Questions about spike in a sentence

How do you use spike in a sentence?: Spike is used as a noun and verb. For example: “The trap was lined with spikes.”
What is a short sentence with spike?: “oil of spike”
What does spike mean?: Spike means a sort of very large nail.

Adapted from Wiktionary: spike (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use spike in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/spike. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.