adjective
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resembling a spike
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having a spike or spikes
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informal ill-tempered
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characterized by violent or aggressive methods
spiky protestors
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of spiky
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
With his cherubic face and spiky hair, Pinto is instantly recognisable.
From BBC ● Sep. 26, 2026
It’s immersive, character-driven and stylish; a spiky, enjoyable piece of filmmaking that is wholly distinctive and hasn’t had all its personality sanded down, the kind of movie you could recommend to anyone.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
Their green space has since taken on a life of its own, and son Arlo has even given a "danger tour" to his friend of all the spiky plants.
From BBC ● Jul. 1, 2026
At the summit is a streamlined nickel-chromium spire whose concentric curves and spiky windows quote the crown of the Statue of Liberty.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 27, 2026
She motioned for Antain to sit on one of the chairs—it was covered with a spiky sort of vine, but Antain sat on it anyway, trying to ignore the prickles in his legs.
From "The Girl Who Drank the Moon" by Kelly Barnhill
I do know it has a "fun mode", for spikier responses - was it messing with me?
From BBC ● Jan. 19, 2024
But in its thumbnail sketches simmering with risk, humor, and melancholy, illuminating a world of worsening disparities but spikier solidarity, it entertainingly takes stock.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2023
Act 2, “Visitor From Hollywood,” is a spikier, shorter segue into satire.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 29, 2022
Two: Can it tolerate paradoxes and complexity, the spikier stuff that distinguishes real-life sinners from comic-book villains?
From New York Times ● Dec. 7, 2017
Desdemona’s hair was long and silky, but I’d gotten Jimmy Zizmo’s spikier variety.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
On set or onstage, she will throw herself into the scrappiest, spikiest, ugliest facets of any part, without ego or undue seriousness.
From New York Times ● Mar. 26, 2021
Shirley, director Josephine Decker’s new film about a few months in the life of the writer Shirley Jackson, aims to resemble a Shirley Jackson story of the very spikiest variety.
From Slate ● Jun. 2, 2020
But with “Jessica Jones,” which returns March 8 for a second season, she is able to let the spikiest elements of her imagination run amok.
From New York Times ● Mar. 2, 2018
Elegantly observed and hysterically funny, it is Rich's spikiest work to date, sidestepping his usual romantic softness in favour of addressing tensions between Brooklyn's hipster excesses and Herschel's desperate poverty.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 16, 2013
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
