different between spike vs point

English

Etymology

From Middle English spike, spyke, spik , from Old Norse spík (“spike, sprig”), from Proto-Germanic *sp?k? (“stick, splinter, point”), from Proto-Indo-European *spey- (“to be pointed; sharp point, stick”). Cognate with Icelandic spík (“spike”), Swedish spik (“spike, nail”), Dutch spijker (“nail”), Old English sp?cing (“spike”), and Latin sp?ca (“ear of corn”), which may have influenced some senses.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /spa?k/
• Rhymes: -a?k

Noun

spike (plural spikes)

1. A sort of very large nail.
2. A piece of pointed metal etc. set with points upward or outward.

3. (by extension) Anything resembling such a nail in shape.

   • He wears on his head the corona radiata […] ; the spikes that shoot out represent the rays of the sun.

4. An ear of corn or grain.
5. (botany) A kind of inflorescence in which sessile flowers are arranged on an unbranched elongated axis.

   Synonyms: catkin, raceme, cluster, corymb, umbel

6. (informal, chiefly in the plural) A running shoe with spikes in the sole to provide grip.
7. A sharp peak in a graph.
8. A surge in power or in the price of a commodity etc.
9. The long, narrow part of a high-heeled shoe that elevates the heel.
10. A long nail for storing papers by skewering them; (by extension) the metaphorical place where rejected newspaper articles are sent.

    Synonym: spindle

    • 1974, Books and Bookmen

      It was all true, it appeared. He sat down and wrote it, the editor read it and said: ' We don't use stories like this in this newspaper.' So the story ended up on the spike, reinforcing the principle that wife-swapping, unlike justice, must not be seen to be done.

    • 2005, David Bouchier, Writer at Work: Reflections on the Art and Business of Writing, iUniverse ?ISBN

      Later I was entrusted with writing the letters to the editor, because nobody else ever wrote to our paper. The editor, Eric Lewis, had a slash and burn style of editing that left its mark on me forever. Most of my stories ended up on the spike.

    • 2013, Margalit Fox, Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code and the Uncovering of a Lost Civilisation, Profile Books ?ISBN

      Assuming that word of the death reached the Times's newsroom at all, it would have taken little more than one bleary-eyed night editor who had heard neither of Ventris nor of linear B for the obituary to have been consigned to the spike.

11. (volleyball) An attack from, usually, above the height of the net performed with the intent to send the ball straight to the floor of the opponent or off the hands of the opposing block.
12. (zoology) An adolescent male deer.
13. (slang, historical) The casual ward of a workhouse.
    • 1933: George Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London, p. 139.

      "Dere's tay spikes, and cocoa spikes, and skilly spikes."

14. Spike lavender.

15. (music, lutherie) Synonym of endpin.
16. (theater) A mark indicating where a prop or other item should be placed on stage.
    • 2020, John Ramsey Holloway, ?Zachary Stribling, Illustrated Theatre Production Guide (page 15)

      Sometimes actors set props on the spikes, or sometimes a deckhand will do it, depending on the action of the play.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

spike (third-person singular simple present spikes, present participle spiking, simple past and past participle spiked)

1. To fasten with spikes, or long, large nails.

   to spike down planks

2. To set or furnish with spikes.
3. To embed nails into (a tree) so that any attempt to cut it down will damage equipment or injure people.
4. To fix on a spike.
   • 1950, Cyril M. Kornbluth, “The Little Black Bag”, Astounding Science Fiction, Volume 45, Issue 4:

     He spiked the story on the “dead” hook and answered his interphone.

   • 1996, Christine Quigley, The Corpse: A History, McFarland, page 144:

     Better known as Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler), he spiked his victims on stakes arranged in geometric patterns and accorded each a high or low spear, according to his or her rank.

5. (figuratively, journalism) To discard; to decide not to publish or make public.
   • 1981, Chris Greyvenstein, The Fighters (page 145):

     Nicolaas, or Nick, as the family called him, wanted to turn professional but an ear injury, sustained during the war, spiked his plans.

   • 2002, October 14, Jonathan Sale, “Edward VIII news blackout”, The Guardian:

     Instead, the "Beaver" declared he would spike the story about Wallis Simpson and make sure his fellow media moguls sat on it too.

   • 2017 October 11, Lloyd Grove, “How NBC ‘Killed’ Ronan Farrow’s Weinstein Exposé”, Daily Beast:

     With two such wildly contradictory versions of why and how NBC News spiked Farrow’s Weinstein story, it’s difficult to determine what objectively occurred.

6. To increase sharply.

   Traffic accidents spiked in December when there was ice on the roads.

   • 2017, Jennifer S. Holland, For These Monkeys, It’s a Fight for Survival., National Geographic (March 2017)[1]

     But the bigger threat is that people in Sulawesi have been eating macaque meat for centuries. Today it goes for about two dollars a pound (an adult macaque weighs 18 to 23 pounds), and demand spikes at holidays.

7. To covertly put alcohol or another intoxicating substance into a drink.

   She spiked my lemonade with vodka!

8. To add a small amount of one substance to another.

   The water sample to be tested has been spiked with arsenic, antimony, mercury, and lead in quantities commonly found in industrial effluents.

9. (volleyball) To attack from, usually, above the height of the net with the intent to send the ball straight to the floor of the opponent or off the hands of the opposing block.
10. (military) To render (a gun) unusable by driving a metal spike into its touch hole.
    • 1834, Frederick Marryat, Peter Simple:

      He jumped down, wrenched the hammer from the armourer’s hand, and seizing a nail from the bag, in a few moments he had spiked the gun.

    • 1990, Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game, Folio Society 2010, p. 235-6:

      Small skirmishes also took place, and the Afghans managed to seize a pair of mule-guns and force the British to spike and abandon two other precious guns.

11. (football slang) To slam the football to the ground, usually in celebration of scoring a touchdown, or to stop expiring time on the game clock after snapping the ball as to save time for the losing team to attempt to score the tying or winning points.

Synonyms

• (volleyball): attack, hit

Derived terms

• spike a temperature
• spike someone's guns

Translations

References

Anagrams

• Pikes, Sipek, kepis, kipes, pikes

English

Pronunciation

• (UK, General American) enPR: point, IPA^(key): /p??nt/
• Rhymes: -??nt

Etymology 1

From Middle English point, from Old French point m (“dot; minute amount”), from Latin p?nctum (“a hole punched in; a point, puncture”), substantive use of p?nctus m, perfect passive participle of pung? (“I prick, punch”); alternatively, from Old French pointe f (“sharp tip”), from Latin p?ncta f (past participle). Displaced native Middle English ord (“point”), from Old English ord (“point”). Doublet of pointe, punctum, punt, and punto.

Noun

point (plural points)

1. A discrete division of something.
   1. An individual element in a larger whole; a particular detail, thought, or quality. [from 13th c.]

   2. A particular moment in an event or occurrence; a juncture. [from 13th c.]

   3. (archaic) Condition, state. [from 13th c.]

   4. A topic of discussion or debate; a proposition. [from 14th c.]

   5. A focus of conversation or consideration; the main idea.

   6. A purpose or objective, which makes something meaningful. [from 14th c.]

   7. (obsolete) The smallest quantity of something; a jot, a whit. [14th-17th c.]
   8. (obsolete) A tiny amount of time; a moment. [14th-17th c.]
      • 1599, John Davies, Nosce Teipsum

        When time's first point begun / Made he all souls.|title=Of the Soule of Man and the Immortalitie Thereof

   9. A specific location or place, seen as a spatial position. [from 14th c.]

   10. (mathematics, sciences) A zero-dimensional mathematical object representing a location in one or more dimensions; something considered to have position but no magnitude or direction. [from 14th c.]
   11. A full stop or other terminal punctuation mark. [from 14th c.]
   12. (music) A dot or mark used to designate certain tones or time. In ancient music, it distinguished or characterized certain tones or styles (points of perfection, of augmentation, etc.). In modern music, it is placed on the right of a note to raise its value, or prolong its time, by one half.
   13. (by extension) A note; a tune.
   14. A distinguishing quality or characteristic. [from 15th c.]

   15. (in the plural, dated) The chief or excellent features.

       the points of a horse

   16. Something tiny, as a pinprick; a very small mark. [from 15th c.]

   17. (now only in phrases) A tenth; formerly also a twelfth. [from 17th c.]

   18. Each of the marks or strokes written above letters, especially in Semitic languages, to indicate vowels, stress etc. [from 17th c.]
   19. (sports, video games, board games) A unit of scoring in a game or competition. [from 18th c.]

   20. (mathematics) A decimal point (now especially when reading decimal fractions aloud). [from 18th c.]

   21. (economics) A unit used to express differences in prices of stocks and shares. [from 19th c.]
   22. (typography) a unit of measure equal to 1/12 of a pica, or approximately 1/72 of an inch (exactly 1/72 of an inch in the digital era). [from 19th c.]
   23. (Britain) An electric power socket. [from 20th c.]
   24. (navigation, nautical) A unit of bearing equal to one thirty-second of a circle, i.e. 11.25°.

   25. (Britain) A unit of measure for rain, equal to 0.254 mm or 0.01 of an inch.
2. A sharp extremity.
   1. The sharp tip of an object. [from 14th c.]

   2. Any projecting extremity of an object. [from 14th c.]
   3. An object which has a sharp or tapering tip. [from 14th c.]

   4. (backgammon) Each of the twelve triangular positions in either table of a backgammon board, on which the stones are played. [from 15th c.]
   5. A peninsula or promontory. [from 15th c.]
   6. The position at the front or vanguard of an advancing force. [from 16th c.]
      1. (by extension) An operational or public leadership position in a risky endeavor.
   7. Each of the main directions on a compass, usually considered to be 32 in number; a direction. [from 16th c.]
   8. (nautical) The difference between two points of the compass.

   9. Pointedness of speech or writing; a penetrating or decisive quality of expression. [from 17th c.]
   10. (rail transport, Britain, in the plural) A railroad switch. [from 19th c.]
   11. (usually in the plural) An area of contrasting colour on an animal, especially a dog; a marking. [from 19th c.]

   12. A tine or snag of an antler.
   13. (fencing) A movement executed with the sabre or foil.

3. (heraldry) One of the several different parts of the escutcheon.
4. (nautical) A short piece of cordage used in reefing sails.
5. (historical) A string or lace used to tie together certain garments.
6. Lace worked by the needle.

7. (US, slang, dated) An item of private information; a hint; a tip; a pointer.
8. The attitude assumed by a pointer dog when he finds game.

9. (falconry) The perpendicular rising of a hawk over the place where its prey has gone into cover.
10. The act of pointing, as of the foot downward in certain dance positions.
11. The gesture of extending the index finger in a direction in order to indicate something.
    • 2005, Marc Marschark, Patricia Elizabeth Spencer, Oxford handbook of deaf studies, language, and education

      […] DCDP children are exposed to more points and gesturelike signs in their linguistic environment […]

12. (medicine, obsolete) A vaccine point.
13. In various sports, a position of a certain player, or, by extension, the player occupying that position.
    1. (cricket) A fielding position square of the wicket on the off side, between gully and cover. [from 19th c.]
    2. (lacrosse, ice hockey) The position of the player of each side who stands a short distance in front of the goalkeeper.
    3. (baseball) The position of the pitcher and catcher.
    4. (hunting) A spot to which a straight run is made; hence, a straight run from point to point; a cross-country run.

Synonyms

• (location or place): location, place, position, spot
• (in geometry): ord
• (particular moment in an event or occurrence): moment, ord, time
• (sharp tip): end, ord, tip
• (arithmetic symbol): spot, decimal point (name of the symbol; not used when reading decimal fractions aloud)
• (opinion): opinion, point of view, view, viewpoint
• (unit of measure of success or failure): mark (in a competition)
• (color of extremities of an animal):

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

• ? Indonesian: poin
• ? Japanese: ???? (pointo)
• ? Korean: ??? (pointeu)

Translations

See also

• Appendix:Collocations of do, have, make, and take for the use of point with these verbs

References

• point on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 2

From Middle English pointen, poynten, from Old French pointier, pointer, poynter, from Medieval Latin punctare, p?nctu?re, from Latin p?nctum.

Verb

point (third-person singular simple present points, present participle pointing, simple past and past participle pointed)

1. (intransitive) To extend the index finger in the direction of something in order to show where it is or to draw attention to it.
   • Point at the tattered coat and ragged shoe.

2. (intransitive) To draw attention to something or indicate a direction.

3. (intransitive) To face in a particular direction.
4. (transitive, sometimes figuratively) To direct toward an object; to aim.
   • 1853, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons, Parliamentary Papers (volume 11, page 267)

     Mr. Fitzsimons pointed my attention to an outside car on which was written, "Take warning," or something of that kind, and he pointed that out to me, and drew my attention to it, as a thing likely to intimidate […]

5. To give a point to; to sharpen; to cut, forge, grind, or file to an acute end.

6. (intransitive) To indicate a probability of something.
7. (transitive, intransitive, masonry) To repair mortar.
8. (transitive, masonry) To fill up and finish the joints of (a wall), by introducing additional cement or mortar, and bringing it to a smooth surface.
9. (stone-cutting) To cut, as a surface, with a pointed tool.
10. (transitive) To direct or encourage (someone) in a particular direction.
11. (transitive, mathematics) To separate an integer from a decimal with a decimal point.
12. (transitive) To mark with diacritics.
13. (dated) To supply with punctuation marks; to punctuate.

14. (transitive, computing) To direct the central processing unit to seek information at a certain location in memory.
15. (transitive, Internet) To direct requests sent to a domain name to the IP address corresponding to that domain name.
16. (intransitive, nautical) To sail close to the wind.

17. (intransitive, hunting) To indicate the presence of game by a fixed and steady look, as certain hunting dogs do.
    • 1713, John Gay, The Rural Sports

      He treads with caution, and he points with fear.

18. (medicine, of an abscess) To approximate to the surface; to head.
19. (dated) To give point to (something said or done); to give particular prominence or force to.
    • 1924, EM Forster, A Passage to India, Penguin 2005, p. 85:

      ‘Oh, it is the great defect in our Indian character!’ – and, as if to point his criticism, the lights of the Civil Station appeared on a rise to the right.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle English pointen, poynten, by apheresis of apointen, appointen, appoynten. See appoint.

Verb

point (third-person singular simple present points, present participle pointing, simple past and past participle pointed)

1. (obsolete) To appoint.

References

Further reading

• point in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• point in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Pinto, opt in, opt-in, pinot, pinto, piton, potin

Danish

Etymology

From French point, from Latin p?nctum, the neuter of the participle p?nctus (“pointed”). The Latin word is also borrowed to Danish punkt (“dot”) and punktum (“full stop”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [p?o???]

Noun

point

1. a point (in a game)

Declension

See also

• punkt
• pointe
• pointere

Further reading

• “point” in Den Danske Ordbog

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pw??/
• (Quebec) IPA^(key): [pw????]
• Rhymes: -??
• Homophones: poing, poings, points

Etymology 1

From Middle French poinct (with orthography modified to reflect the Latin etymology), from Old French point, from Latin punctum.

Noun

point m (plural points)

1. point (small mark)
2. (sports, games) point
3. full stop, period (punctuation mark)
4. (knitting) stitch pattern

Derived terms

Descendants

• ? Danish: point
• Norwegian Bokmål: poeng

Adverb

point

1. (literary, dialectal, usually with "ne") not

   Synonym: pas (contemporary French)

Related terms

• appointer
• pointe
• poindre
• poignant
• poinçon

Etymology 2

From Old French point, from Latin punctus.

Verb

point m (feminine singular pointe, masculine plural points, feminine plural pointes)

1. past participle of poindre

Etymology 3

From Latin pungit.

Verb

point

1. third-person singular present indicative of poindre

Anagrams

• piton

Further reading

• “point” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Manx

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Verb

point (verbal noun pointeil, past participle pointit)

1. appoint

Mutation

Norman

Etymology

From Old French point, from Latin punctum.

Noun

point m (plural points)

1. (Jersey) full stop, period (punctuation mark)

Derived terms

• point d'excliamâtion (“exclamation mark”)
• point d'tchestchionn'nie (“question mark”)
• point virgule (“semicolon”)

Old French

Etymology 1

From Latin punctum.

Noun

point m (oblique plural poinz or pointz, nominative singular poinz or pointz, nominative plural point)

1. a sting; a prick
2. moment; time
3. (on a die) dot
4. small amount

Adverb

point

1. a little
2. (with ne) not (indicates negation)

Descendants

• Middle French: poinct
  • French: point

Etymology 2

From Latin punctus.

Verb

point

1. past participle of poindre

Descendants

• Dutch: pointeren
• English: point
• Middle French: poinct
  • French: point
    • Norwegian Bokmål: poeng

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pw?nt/

Noun

point f pl

1. genitive plural of pointa

Portuguese

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /?põj?.t??(i)/

Noun

point m (plural points)

1. (Brazil, slang) a location where members of a group usually meet