(a) A spike; a pointed tip or spike on a staff, pole, weapon, instrument of torture, etc.; a spike affixed to a door or wall; also, a spike used to tear or wound someone; also fig.; → of iren, an iron spike; (b) the spike of a candlestick or chandelier on which a candle was fixed; (c) a quill of a hedgehog or a similar animal; a spine of a fish or an insect; a claw of a bear; also, a thorn or prickle of a plant; (d) a stroke made by a pointed instrument, a prick.

(a) A spiked staff, esp. one used by pilgrims; also fig.; (b) a stake, prop.

(a) A pickax; a tool used for breaking up and digging up ground, breaking up walls, mining, etc. (sometimes identified with other tools, such as a mattock, pick, spade, hoe, etc.); (b) a tool used by masons and quarriers; also, a tool associated with a mill [both difficult to distinguish from (a), to which some quots. here may belong].

(a) A pitchfork; a hayfork; (b) a tool for cutting peas; (c) a kind of kitchen utensil.

(a) The long, pointed toe or peak of a shoe, boot, or other footwear; a shoe with such a peak [quot.: 1394]; crakou ~ [see crakou (b)]; (b) a beak, a sharp projection.

A mountain.

In cpds. and combs.: ~ iren, ?a pickax, ?a tool used by masons; ~ shaft, a linear unit of land measure; ~ staf, a spiked staff, esp. a pilgrim's staff; also fig.; also, as surname; milne ~, a tool used for trimming the surfaces of millstones; ~ wal, the gable or gable end of a building; col ~ [see col 4. (b)]; ere ~ [see ere n.(1) 5. (g)]; dong ~ [see dong n.(1) 5.]; fir ~ [see fir 2b. (a)]; pole ~ [see pol(e n.(2)].

(a) In surnames; (b) in place names [see Smith PNElem. 2.63].