handspike

American  

[hand-spahyk] / ˈhændˌspaɪk /

noun

1. a bar used as a lever.

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handspike British  

/ ˈhændˌspaɪk /

noun

1. a bar or length of pipe used as a lever

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Etymology

Origin of handspike

1605–15; < Dutch handspaak ( see hand, spoke ²), with -spaak replaced by spike ¹

Example Sentences

He had caught up a handspike in one fist, a tiller rope with a slipping noose in the other, and thus equipped had jumped down into the gun-deck.

From The Scrap Book, Volume 1, No. 6 August 1906 by Various

"Aye, Master Clifford----" "But, sir, you described him as being as thin as a handspike."

From The Quest of the 'Golden Hope' A Seventeenth Century Story of Adventure by Westerman, Percy F. (Percy Francis)

Nay; the man, though short in stature, was as thin as a handspike.

From The Quest of the 'Golden Hope' A Seventeenth Century Story of Adventure by Westerman, Percy F. (Percy Francis)

The captain, seizing another handspike, approached Hans, as though to decide by single combat the question whether or not he was to obtain freedom; at least such was for a moment Hans’ idea.

From Adventures of Hans Sterk The South African Hunter and Pioneer by Drayson, A. W. (Alfred Wilks)

As good cider as ever I drank was made in a hollowed log fitted with a press-block and operated by a handspike.

From Our Southern Highlanders by Kephart, Horace