spike n.1
1. the erect penis.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | ‘Nancy Dawson’ in Nancy Dawson’s Cabinet of Songs 9: When he lugged out his marlin spike, / ‘My eye,’ says Nance, ‘’tis what I like’. | |
| Sl. and Its Analogues. | |
| Nocturnal Meeting 31: The spunk hurtled from my spike. |
2. an expression of annoyance, irritation; always in phrs. below.
3. a needle, a nail.
| Le Slang. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | World I Never Made 218: Tony snatched some spikes in the Jews hardware store. |
4. (US Und.) a lock.
| Stealing Through Life 296: There’s a big spike on the vault. |
5. a needle; a hypodermic syringe.
| Und. and Prison Sl. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| Second Ending 236: ‘Where’s the spike?’ He took the syringe from the jacket pocket. | |
| Scene (1996) 92: This [...] is what most addicts call a spike. You can see all it consists of is an everyday eye-dropper, a baby’s pacifier, tightened at the top with a rubber band, and a size-25 hypodermic needle. | |
| S.R.O. (1998) 140: ‘Alcohol is not your thing [...] And you were most certainly not born to the spike’. | |
| (con. 1940s–60s) ‘Ed Leary’ in Eve. Sun Turned Crimson (1998) 126: We bought two droppers and a couple of spikes — needles, No. 26 half-inch. | |
| (con. early 1950s) L.A. Confidential 227: Jack kicked him prone, yanked the spike from his arm. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | The Joy (2015) [ebook] Fuck the bastard who blunted me spike. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Tasmanian Babes Fiasco (1998) 153: He’d passed out on the bathroom floor with a spike in his arm. | |
| Grits 344: A coulduv mainlined inner bogs burrav lost me fuckin spike an am fucked if am gunner use anyone else’s. | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 174/1: spike n. a hypodermic needle. | |
| Chicken (2003) 90: Jade [...] Lays her spike on the table. [...] Draws clear liquid meticulously through the filter of a cigarette into her spike. | |
![[SA]](/static/img/flags/sa.png "South Africa") | Acid Alex 236: Okay here’s a nice fat spike in your bum. | |
| Alphaville (2011) 69: [...] enough brains to stay off the spike. | |
| Widespread Panic 124: They fed a spike. They tied off tourniquets. They geezed. |
6. the act of injecting a narcotic drug.
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| Traffic In Narcotics 315: spike. [...] an injection of a drug. | |
| Street Players 147: I didn’t mean to hit your spike, bitch. |
7. a style of haircut.
| Juvenile Delinquency 255: By 1990 ‘flat tops,’ ‘buzzes,’ ‘spikes’ [...] dominated the youth culture. |
8. (Aus. drugs) the quantity or strength of a narcotic used for a single injection.
| Zero at the Bone [ebook] It was uncut. He never used cut. She’d have been used to street shit, 10 per cent pure. But this was all pure. She’d hit ten times her usual spike. |
In derivatives
(N.Z. drugs/prison) an intravenous drug user.
| Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 174/1: spiker n. an intravenous drug user. |
Pertaining to drugs
In phrases
to inject a narcotic drug.
| Fever Kill 53: Guys heating spoons and hitting the spike. |
(US drugs) using or addicted to narcotics.
| Und. and Prison Sl. | |
| Narcotics Lingo and Lore. |
Pertaining to irritation or annoyance
to be extremely annoyed.
| Derby Mercury 9 Jan. 8/3: Of course Chris gets the spike (in a temper) because Sullivan had shopped him (told the truth). | |
| [perf. Marie Lloyd] Salute My Bicycle! 🎵 They can chaff me all they like, / But I never get the ‘spike’. | |
| Capricornian (Rockhampton) 6 Feb. 30/4: He had a cliner there, too, and she got the spike with me as well. | |
| Sun. Times (Perth) 15 May 4/8: Show us why, if one is pretty, / No plain wifey gets the spike. | |
| Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era. | |
| Sport (Adelaide) 20 Nov. 5/7: If pater doesn’t watch closely / He’ll be sure to get the spike. | |
| ‘A Ditty of Dislike’ Sporting Times 24 Apr. 1/2: The Huns may get the spike, / But I’d scorn to be a hater, and I won’t. | |
| Maori Girl 141: You don’t have to get the spike with me just for that. | |
| Full Cycle 237: If a man said he didn’t want your ugly mug around his camp, you’d get the spike. |
to irritate.
| Music Hall & Theatre Rev. 1 June 5/1: Aask for some of his ‘Rue Gin.’ That’ll give him the spike. | |
| Truth (Sydney) 31 Aug. 8/3: Talkin’ easy— quiet like — / When he sees a bummer loafing / Round. That ther gave him the spike. | |
| ‘Exaggerated Curiosity’ Sporting Times 10 Dec. 1/3: He / Cried ‘Hear! hear!’ in the wrong place, and shouted out ‘Rot!’ / With such zest as to give them the ‘spike’. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Sept. 22/1: There’s nothing I know in a — fight that gives you the — spike / Like findin’ cover and sittin’ tight and ’earin’ the bullets strike. |
to be in a bad temper.
| (con. 1940s) Confessions 104: I really had my spike up now. |
to be angry, irritated.
| Mirror of Life 15 Sept. 3/2: Tom Turner and ‘Jolly Jumbo’ have the ‘spike,’ so ‘Natty’ may be put on something for ‘Jolly Jumbo’. | |
| (con. 1940s) Borstal Boy 71: They got the dead needle for you. [Ibid.] 268: I could see he had the spike. |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
the penis.
| Sl. and Its Analogues. |
a prison; spec. the King’s Bench or Fleet in London; cite 2021 is ref. to Cork.
| Tom and Jerry III iv: You are booked for the Spike Hotel. | |
| Morn. Post (London) 20 Mar. 2/5: I inquired where the Spike Hotel was. ‘Why, in St. George’s Fields to be sure. Did you never see the King’s Bench Prison?’. | |
| Modern Flash Dict. 31: Spike hotel – the Fleet, or King’s Bench [prisons]. | |
| Swell’s Night Guide 132/2: Spike Hotel, the Fleet, or King’s Bench. | |
| Rules of Revelation 72: ‘Inishbofin’s the new Spike Island, is it?’ ‘Stop, Dad, you’re a howl’. |
(UK und.) the Fleet prison.
| Satirist (London) 18 Sept. 191/3: epistle, From a K.C.B.*, to a Friend serving out his time in the Fleet. It grieves me, dear Henry, that / [...] / you, anon free of your cash and your name, / Should be, in Spike Island, confined, just the same. |
the Queen’s Bench prison; thus spike park, the grounds of a prison.
| Pickwick Papers (1999) 568: No danger of overwalking yourself here – spike park – grounds pretty – romantic but not extensive. | |
| Northampton Mercury 28 June 5/4: The Queen’s Bench Prison [...] which by the cap-and-dressing-gown-distinguished residents was wont to be called ‘Spike Park’. | |
| Sl. Dict. | |
| Sheffield Indep. 16 Aug. 9/4: No danger of over-walking yourself here — Spike Park. | |
| Sl. and Its Analogues. | |
| Surrey Mirror 22 Apr. 8/3: The ‘Rulers of the Queen’s Bench’ mitigated the severity of the confinement within the stone walls and iron bars of ‘Spike Park’. |
(US) a coach drawn by three horses, two abreast and one in the lead.
| Dict. Americanisms 324: Spike Team, a waggon drawn by three horses, or by two oxen and a horse, the latter leading the oxen or span of horses . | |
 | Notches 178: I got there with a loaded waggon, and a ‘spike team’—three mules [DA]. |
In phrases
(Aus.) to appear in court as a defendant.
| Bulletin (Sydney) 6 Jun. 22/4: At the Sydney Central, an elderly dealer named James Johnson was obliged to look over the spikes and explain why he bit the ear and chin off one Charles Tandy. [...] The defense was that Johnson dealt in ears and chins, and was merely trying if Tandy’s were made to order, or slop-made. |
the King’s Bench Prison, London.
| Life in London (1869) 60: Washing the ivory with a prime screw under the spikes in Saint George’s Fields. |