PIKE

In Ichthyology, the English term for a fish belonging to the order Malacopterygii, section Abdomina les, family Esocidae, and genus Esox. See Mai.aCOPTERYGIANS. Pike. In Military afiairs, an offensive weapon used in antiquity and modern times down to the invention of the bayonet, by which it has been universally superseded, consisting of a shaft of wood of 12 or 14 feet in length, surmounted with a flat pointed steel, commonly called the spear. It was chiefly used by the infantry. [s. 941]