Word Meanings - SPIKE - Book Publishers vocabulary database

A kind of flower cluster in which sessile flowers are arranged on an unbranched elongated axis. Spike grass , either of two tall perennial American grasses having broad leaves and large flattened spikelets. -- Spike rush. See under Rush. -- Spike

Additional info about word: SPIKE

A kind of flower cluster in which sessile flowers are arranged on an unbranched elongated axis. Spike grass , either of two tall perennial American grasses having broad leaves and large flattened spikelets. -- Spike rush. See under Rush. -- Spike shell , any pteropod of the genus Styliola having a slender conical shell. -- Spike team, three horses, or a horse and a yoke of oxen, harnessed together, a horse leading the oxen or the span. (more info) spijker, Sw. spik, Dan. spiger, Icel. spik; all perhaps from L. spica a point, an ear of grain; but in the sense of nail more likely akin 1. A sort of very large nail; also, a piece of pointed iron set with points upward or outward. 2. Anything resembling such a nail in shape. He wears on his head the corona radiata . . . ; the spikes that shoot out represent the rays of the sun. Addison. 3. An ear of corn or grain.

Related words: (words related to SPIKE)

• UNDERDOER
  One who underdoes; a shirk.
• UNDERBRED
  Not thoroughly bred; ill-bred; as, an underbred fellow. Goldsmith.
• UNDERSECRETARY
  A secretary who is subordinate to the chief secretary; an assistant secretary; as, an undersecretary of the Treasury.
• UNDERPLOT
  1. A series of events in a play, proceeding collaterally with the main story, and subservient to it. Dryden. 2. A clandestine scheme; a trick. Addison.
• HAVENED
  Sheltered in a haven. Blissful havened both from joy and pain. Keats.
• FLOWERY-KIRTLED
  Dressed with garlands of flowers. Milton.
• UNDERNICENESS
  A want of niceness; indelicacy; impropriety.
• UNDERDOLVEN
  p. p. of Underdelve.
• UNDERSOIL
  The soil beneath the surface; understratum; subsoil.
• UNDERNIME
  1. To receive; to perceive. He the savor undernom Which that the roses and the lilies cast. Chaucer. 2. To reprove; to reprehend. Piers Plowman.
• UNDERPROP
  To prop from beneath; to put a prop under; to support; to uphold. Underprop the head that bears the crown. Fenton.
• UNDERCREST
  To support as a crest; to bear. Shak.
• HAVENER
  A harbor master.
• UNDERSAY
  To say by way of derogation or contradiction. Spenser.
• UNDERGROUND INSURANCE
  Wildcat insurance.
• FLOWER-DE-LUCE
  A genus of perennial herbs with swordlike leaves and large three-petaled flowers often of very gay colors, but probably white in the plant first chosen for the royal French emblem. Note: There are nearly one hundred species, natives of the north
• BROADSWORD
  A sword with a broad blade and a cutting edge; a claymore. I heard the broadsword's deadly clang. Sir W. Scott.
• UNDERTAPSTER
  Assistant to a tapster.
• BROADBILL
  A wild duck , which appears in large numbers on the eastern coast of the United States, in autumn; - - called also bluebill, blackhead, raft duck, and scaup duck. See Scaup duck.
• UNDERDELVE
  To delve under.
• WINDFLOWER
  The anemone; -- so called because formerly supposed to open only when the wind was blowing. See Anemone.
• ALEPPO GRASS
  One of the cultivated forms of Andropogon Halepensis (syn. Sorghum Halepense). See Andropogon, below.
• CAULIFLOWER
  An annual variety of Brassica oleracea, or cabbage of which the cluster of young flower stalks and buds is eaten as a vegetable. 2. The edible head or "curd" of a caulifower plant. (more info) caulis, and by E. flower; F. chou cabbage is fr. L.
• PLUNDERER
  One who plunders or pillages.
• FLATTEN
  To lower the pitch of; to cause to sound less sharp; to let fall from the pitch. To flatten a sail , to set it more nearly fore-and-aft of the vessel. -- Flattening oven, in glass making, a heated chamber in which split glass cylinders
• TEN-POUNDER
  A large oceanic fish found in the tropical parts of all the oceans. It is used chiefly for bait.
• DUNDERHEAD
  A dunce; a numskull; a blockhead. Beau. & Fl.