▪ I. pikeman1 Obs. exc. Hist.
(ˈpaɪkmən)
[f. pike n.5 + man n.1]
A soldier armed with a pike.
| 15.. Sir A. Barton in Surtees Misc. (1888) 66 Yea, pick⁓men more, and bowmen both, This worthye Howard tooke to the sea. 1566 Partridge Plasidas 993 The pike-men, they on walles doe stande their towne for to defende. 1627 Maldon, Essex, Documents (Bundle 201 No. 40), Further that every pickman come full armed. 1647 Clarendon Hist. Reb. iv. §199 The Pikemen had fasten'd to the tops of their pikes..printed Papers of the Protestation. 1885 Spectator 30 May 715/2 The Swiss pikemen at Morgarten..brought this ascendency to the ground. |
▪ II. pikeman2
(ˈpaɪkmən)
Also (in sense 1) pikesman.
[f. pike n.1 + man n.1]
1. A man who wields a pick; a pickman; a miner; one who hews the coal with a pickaxe.
| 1845 Disraeli Sybil vi. vi, ‘My missus told it me at the pit-head when she brought me my breakfast’, said a pike⁓man. 1864 Daily Tel. 26 Oct., It is stated the best miners, known as pikesmen, can hew a stent and a half in a day. 1880 Ibid. 28 Oct., The pikeman's recumbent position and the easy strokes he appears to take at the coal. |
2. A man who picks the mill-stones and keeps them in order; hence, the tenant or man in charge of a thirlage, baronial, or burghal mill. (Sc.)
| 15.. Aberdeen Regr. (Jam.), Pikeman of the townis millis. 1576 Rec. Sheriff Crt. Aberdeensh. (1904) 242 Alex. Williamsone..pikeman of the Miln..and uptaker of the multur and knaifschipe of the tounes and lands of the Miltoun of Auchnagat. 1877 G. Fraser Wigtown 60 The Clerk..and Jamie the Pikeman [had] a mutual dislike and dread of each other. |
▪ III. ˈpikeman3
[f. pike n.6 + man n.1]
The keeper of a turnpike.
| 1857 Hughes Tom Brown i. iv, The cheery toot of the guard's horn, to warn some drowsy pikeman or the ostler at the next change. 1865 Daily Tel. 1 Nov. 4/6 On certain roads you may travel for leagues without being interrupted by the ‘pike-man’. |