Noun

1. A sort of very large nail; also, a piece of pointed iron set with points upward or outward.
2. Anything resembling such a nail in shape.
3. An ear of grain.
4. A kind of inflorescence in which sessile flowers are arranged on an unbranched elongated axis.
5. (in plural spikes; informal) Running shoes with spikes in the soles.
6. A sharp peak in a graph.
7. 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.
8. An adolescent male deer.
9. a surge in power.
10. (slang) 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."

Verb

1. To covertly put alcohol or another intoxicating substance in a drink that previously did not contain such substances.
2. 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.
3. To render (a gun) unusable by driving a metal spike into its touch hole.

   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. — Frederick Marryat, "Peter Simple", 1834

4. To decide not to publish or make public.
   • October 14, 2002, Jonathan Sale, The Guardian, Edward VIII news blackout.

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