Spiky

/ˈspaɪki/ · adjective

Meaning

(not comparable) Of a plant: producing spikes (“ears (as of corn); inflorescences in which sessile flowers are arranged on unbranched elongated axes”)..

Definitions by Sense

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

Example Sentences

[T]he harvest maids began to look knowingly to their partners, who, taking the hint, sprang to their feet, hauled up their sweet abettors, were mated in a moment, and commenced a dance among the stubble, so brisk, that the tall harvest of spiky wheat, standing by, rustled and nodded to them on its golden rods.

[T]he irritation [hay fever] has generally been ascribed rather to the odour of sweet-vernal-grass and scented holcus than to the distinctive action of the pollen itself. The latter species is unknown in English meadows, but sweet-vernal-grass is familiar to most of us as the peculiar spiky plant to which new-mown hay owes with us the whole of its delicious fragrance.

Of this kinde, there is founde an other, the Spikes, eares, or torches wherof, are very dubble, ſo as in euery Spyky eare, in ſteede of the little knappes or heades, it bringeth forth a number of other ſmal torches, wherof eche one is lyke to the ſpike or torch of great Plantayne. […] The ſtalkes [of the third kind of plaintain] be creſted or ſtraked, and beare at the toppe fayre ſpiked knappes with white floures or bloſſoms, like the ſpykie knoppes of the middle Plantayne.

[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.

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

Three ornithischian dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous of North America may be growth stages of the same one species. Dracorex is smallest and spikiest. Stygimoloch is medium-sized and has the longest horns. Pachycephalosaurus is the biggest and also the least spikiest, but it has the largest, thickest dome.

[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; […]

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.

Synonyms for spiky

Antonyms for spiky

Related Words

Word Forms

• spikier
• more spiky
• spikiest
• most spiky
• spikey

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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