Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a toll-keeper.

1836–7		Dickens Pickwick Papers (1999) 295: ‘What do you mean by a pike-keeper?’ enquired Mr. Peter Magnus. ‘The old ’un means a turn-pike keeper’ [...] observed Mr. Weller.
1844		A. Smith Adventures of Mr Ledbury II 287: Whether donkey paid toll, and if so, whether he, the pike-man did not fight shy of going through the gate.
1857		T. Hughes Tom Brown’s School-Days (1896) 766: Then there was [...] the cheery toot of the guard’s horn to warn some drowsy pikeman, or the ostler at the next change.
1873		Sl. Dict. 253: Since the first edition of this work was published, [...] PIKE-keepers have departed from amongst us, so far as London and its immediate vicinity are concerned.
1888		W. Besant Fifty Years Ago 42: The turnpike has gone, and the pikeman with his apron has gone.

(US) to walk (from town to town).

1887

Daily Trib. (Bismarck, ND) 23 Oct. 4/1: If he walks from town to town the actor [...] ‘ties it,’ ‘collars the pike,’ ‘pounds sap out of the ties’ and ‘goes on his uppers.’.

1. to appear, to arrive, to happen.

1894		Frankfort Roundabout (KY) 23 June 1/1: The funeral procession [...] was coming down the Versailles pike.
1896		H. Blossom Checkers 27: He’s the finest [horse] that ever came over the pike.
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 3 Feb. 2/2: ‘Brown’s In Town’ is the best laughmaker that ever came down the pike, and no self-respecting person should fall to see it .
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 220: He was the cheapest crook that ever came down the pike.
1908		G.R. Bacchus Pleasure Bound ‘Afloat’ (1969) 139: She’s the very last thing that ever came down the Pike.
1912		S.F. Call 7 Apr. n.p.: [advt] Coming down the pike of life one good fellow tells another about Velvet - the smoking tobacco.
1916		Day Book (Chicago) 11 July 22/1: Frank R. Walsh, one of the best two-fisted Irishmen that ever came down the pike.
1922		N.Y. Tribune 20 Aug. 56/6: Of all the funny phantoms that have come down the pike for the befuzzlement of the gullibles, this is the flimsiest.
c.1935		‘Mae West in “The Hip Flipper”’ [comic strip] in B. Adelman Tijuana Bibles (1997) 92: The most tempting and voluptuous torso that ever came down the pike.
1968		(con. c.1900) J. Thompson King Blood (1989) 116: The smoothest, sneakiest, crookedest son-of-a-bitch that ever come down the pike.
1977		Ben-Veniste & Frampton Stonewall 342: Dean [...] was probably one of the best-prepared witnesses ever to come down the pike.
1986		L. Heinemann Paco’s Story (1987) 154: If those cornball chickenshits had hung around for more than a morning, they might have seen [...] some mean shit come down the pike.
1990		(con. 1930s–60s) H. Huncke Guilty of Everything (1998) 231: I don’t know whether I walked like a man or the biggest faggot that ever came down the pike, but I did walk across that office.
1998		‘Bill E. Goodhead’ Nubile Treat 🌐 And just because a girl is willing to let them get in her panties, they get all stuck up and think they’re the biggest studs ever to come down the pike.

2. in fig. use, implying the passing of time, progression of events.

1987

R. Campbell Alice in La-La Land (1999) 113: Let’s go one year down the pike.

1. to leave.

1904		Hartford (CT) Courant 25 June 8: The La Follette convention, whose delegates were so summarily ordered to hit the pike by the national committeemen at Chicago [DA].
1907		W.M. Raine Bucky O’Connor (1910) 73: If you don’t like it, cut loose and hit the pike for yourself.
1910		Arizona Repub. (Phoenix, AZ) 17 June 7/1: Grandpa Ullom [...] hitched up old Dobbin and hit the pike for Glendale.
1912		R.W. Brown ‘Word-List From Western Indiana’ in DN III:viii 578: hit the pike, v. To go away hastily. ‘When they began talking money, I hit the pike’.
1925		J. Tully Beggars of Life 49: You’d have to walk five miles so’s to cross an’ hit the pike for Boone.

2. to leave one’s job.

1906

J.W. Carr ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:iii 141: hit the pike, v. phr. To take French leave. ‘He didn’t want to get put on the chain-gang; so he just hit the pike and that was the last we saw of him.’.

3. (US) to travel around.

1911

‘Sing Sing No. 57,700’ My View on Books in N.Y. Times Mag. 30 Apr. 5/3: Tartarin of Tarascom [...] It shows how a four-flusher that hits the pike can make good with the wise gazabos that stay home.

to defraud; to beat up.

1931

Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 145: To ‘take him down the pike’ means variously to take someone out and defraud him, or to so pummel an individual that he is no longer a nuisance or a menace, but amenable to instruction or discipline.