▪ I. spiked, a.1
(spaɪkt)
[f. spike n.1]
1. Of plants: Having an inflorescence in the form of a spike; bearing ears, as grain.
| 1601 Holland Pliny II. 559 Wheat and such like spiked corne withstand the winter cold better than Pulse. 1640 Parkinson Theat. Bot. 1169 This greatest sort groweth up with..stalkes two foot high, on which stand long round spiked heads. 1712 Phil. Trans. XXVII. 416 Neither grows it upright and spiked, but procumbent and racemose. 1777 Potter æschylus, Supplicants 114 Dogs..yield to the mast'ring wolves; And the soft reed to the firm spiked corn. 1830 Lindley Nat. Syst. Bot. 172 Herbaceous dicotyledons, with..opposite leaves, spiked flowers. 1870 Hooker Stud. Flora 315 Clusters of flowers spiked. |
2. In specific names, as spiked brome-grass, spiked clover, spiked liatris, spiked loosestrife, spiked mint, etc.
| 1597 Gerarde Herbal i. xcii. 339 The spiked Rose Plantaine hath very few leaues. 1731 Miller Gard. Dict. s.v. Mentha, Common Spik'd-Mint, usually call'd Spear-Mint. Ibid. s.v. Veronica, Narrow-leav'd spik'd Speedwell. Ibid., Welsh spiked Speedwell. 1771 Encycl. Brit. I. 681 The pinnatus or spiked brome-grass. 1796 Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) II. 350 Spiked Rush. Near the summits of the Highland mountains. 1822 Hortus Anglicus II. 351 Spiked Liatris;..spike leafy, dense above. 1828 J. E. Smith Engl. Flora II. 343 Spiked Purple-Loosestrife... Flowers in whorled leafy spikes. 1851 Wilson Rur. Cycl. IV. 15/2 The spiked rampion, Phyteuma spicatum, has sometimes been used as an article of food. 1855 Miss Pratt Flower. Pl. III. 345 Spiked Rampion... This rare species has been found only in Sussex. 1888 Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 6 Dec. 2/3 A native forage plant, called ‘spiked clover’, is attracting attention in California. The plant puts out white blossoms on slender spikes. |
Hence † spikedness, ‘likeness to an ear of corn’ (Bailey, vol. II, 1727). Obs.—0
▪ II. spiked, a.2
(spaɪkt)
[f. spike n.2]
1. Provided with spikes or sharp points.
| 1681 Grew Musæum i. vi. i. 125 The Spiked-Wilk. Murex Aculeatus. a 1727 Newton Chronol. Amended (1728) 319 An archer..crowned with a spiked crown. 1763 Brit. Mag. IV. 206 Shot, of all sizes, from 28 pounders to four ounces... Grape ditto... Spiked [ditto]. 1830 Skelton Meyrick's Arms & Armour II. Pl. 80 The long spiked-rowel spur of Edward IV's time, of iron. 1850 ‘Bat’ Cricket Man. 104 Spiked Soles for Cricket Shoes. 1884 W. S. B. M{supc}Laren Spinning (ed. 2) 182 The three spiked workers..revolve above it in the opposite direction. |
| transf. 1876 Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. III. xlii. 242 The yoke of oppression was a spiked torture. 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. II. 157 [The temperature] is of a strikingly ‘spiked’ character when charted. |
2. spiked buck, a spike-buck. U.S.
| 1897 Outing XXIX. 439/1 A strong, young, spiked buck. |
3. a. Laced or fortified with alcohol. Also transf. and fig.
In some examples parsable as pa. pple. of the verb.
| 1909 Dialect Notes III. 374 Spike, v.tr. 1. To mix an alcoholic with a non-alcoholic beverage. Chiefly in the pp. ‘This lemonade is heavily spiked.’ 1929 Detective Fiction Weekly 23 Mar. 161/2 ‘I can ditch a drink that I suspect of being spiked.’ This word ‘spiked’ was that year [sc. c 1899] the very newest slang, signifying ‘doped’. 1942 E. Paul Narrow St. i. 2 Some of the early risers huddled round the counter to swallow their coffee, often spiked with cheap, watered rum or cognac. 1960 J. McNamee Florencia Bay 52 Then the promoter who, on the strength of spiked assays, had floated a company. 1974 P. Cave Mama (new ed.) xi. 95 The babble of conversation was liberally spiked with laughter, merriment and enthusiasm. |
b. transf. Containing a small addition of a radioactive or otherwise distinctive material; enriched.
| 1959 F. G. Foote in Hausner & Schumar Nucl. Fuel Elem. v. 78 The best use of plutonium-spiked uranium fuels would be in fast neutron reactors. 1962 Analytical Chem. XXXIV. 709/2 Separate spiked and unspiked analyses must be made of the unknown uranium sample. 1975 Sci. Amer. Oct. 27/2 The idea is to add about half a gram of plutonium 239 to each kilogram of uranium. Since a kilogram of natural uranium contains 7·2 grams of U-235, the ‘spiked’ fuel would contain a total of 7·7 grams of fissionable material. |