pikel, pikle dial.
(ˈpaɪk(ə)l)
Also locally pickel, pickle, pikehil, poikel, -kle.
[f. pike n.1 3 b; prob. with -el, -le, instrumental, as in handle, spindle, shovel.]
A hay-fork, pitchfork. (Common in local use, in the Midland and Western Counties from Lancashire southwards.)
| 1602 J. Bruen in Hinde Life xlvi. (1641) 147 One casting a pikell..one being behind him, the two greins of the pikell ran on both sides of his leg, and hurt him not. 1681 P. Henry Diaries & Lett. (1882) 307 From y⊇ lower Hay⁓bay..they pitcht it and carry'd it on Pikehils to y⊇ Carts. 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. 73/1 Take..a Pikell of Hay, as much as hangs together on the points or grains of a Pikell. a 1874 ‘B. Cornwall’ Manch. Streets 87 Her Majesty..had seen the threatening clouds ‘rain poikels’ as Lancashire alone can rain them. 1879 Eddowes' Shrewsbury Jrnl. 3 Sept., Charge of stabbing with a pikel. |