Spiky

Quick meaning: Spiky is an adjective meaning (comparable) Of a plant part: resembling a spike of a plant (see above).

Meaning

(comparable) Of a plant part: resembling a spike of a plant (see above).

More Meanings

1. Having one or more spikes; spiny.
2. Resembling spikes: erect and having sharp points; spikelike.
3. Of a person or their nature: difficult to deal with; abrasive, hostile, unfriendly.
4. Of a thing: not smooth; rough, sharp.
5. Excessively high church (“practising a formal style of liturgy and emphasizing continuity with Catholicism”).
6. (not comparable) Of a plant: producing spikes (“ears (as of corn); inflorescences in which sessile flowers are arranged on unbranched elongated axes”).

Example Sentences

The ſpiky VVheels thro' Heaps of Carnage tore; / And thick the groaning Axles dropp'd vvith Gore.

[I]f ten thousand of this spiky tree, the larch, are stuck in at once upon the side of a hill, they can grow up into nothing but deformity; […]

[D]iverſ hairy Stalks, about a hand breadth high, bearing every one a ſmall long ſpiky Head like to thoſe of the common Plantane, having ſuch like Bloomings and Seed after them.

At first, he slept heavily, but, by degrees, began to roll and surge in bed, until he rose above the surface, with his spiky hair looking as if it must tear the sheets to ribbons.

Word Forms

• spikier
• spikiest
• spikey

Synonyms for spiky

Depending on context, synonyms include prickly, thorny, high, high-pitched, peaky.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include peaky, high-pitched, high, acerbic, spikey, spiked.

Related Dictionary Tools