Pike

Pike, a word loosely used for almost any kind of lance or Spear (q.v.), whether larger or smaller headed, as used by infantry troops, and now superseded by the bayonet. The naval boarding-pike is a lance about the length of a man. The short pike, called half-pike or spontoon, long carried by some classes of infantry officers in most European armies, was a kind of Halbert (q.v.) with a smaller but ornamented head, and was rather an emblem of dignity than a fighting weapon. In 1804, when a French invasion was threatened, pikes were distributed by government through the country; and the secret manufacture of iron pike-heads was one of the most disquieting features of the Radical reform agitation in 1819 and during the Chartist troubles.