half-pike Now Hist.
A small pike, having a shaft of about half the length of the full-sized one. There were two kinds; one, also called a spontoon, formerly carried by infantry officers; the other, used in ships for repelling boarders, a boarding pike.
| 1599 Massinger, etc. Old Law iii. ii, Here's a half-pike. 1631 Chettle Hoffman ii. C iij, Ile trie one course with thee at the halfepike, and then goe; come draw thy pike. 1698 Froger Voy. 12 Their ordinary Arms are the Hanger, the Sagay [assagai], which is a very light Half-Pike. 1715 Lond. Gaz. No. 5358/2 The Duke of Guise with an Half-Pike in his Hand, being at the Head of the Regiment. 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1789), Demi-pique, a half-pike, sometimes used to oppose boarders in a sea-fight. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xiv. III. 422 Camp followers, armed with scythes, halfpikes, and skeans. |
b. Comb., as half-pike-man.
| 1690 J. Mackenzie Siege London-Derry 60/2 That the said Half-Pike-men..be disarmed. |