pikeln.
/ˈpʌɪk(ə)l/, /ˈpɪk(ə)l/, U.S. /ˈpaɪk(ə)l/, /ˈpɪk(ə)l/, Scottish English /ˈpʌik(ə)l/, /ˈpɪk(ə)l/, Irish English /ˈpaɪk(ə)l/, /ˈpɪk(ə)l/, Welsh English /ˈpaikː(ə)l/, /ˈpɪkː(ə)l/ English regional (chiefly west midlands and northern), Welsh English, Scottish, and Irish English.
A pitchfork or hay-fork. Also figurative.
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the world > food and drink > farming > tools and implements > [noun] > fork > pitch-fork
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shakefork1338
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pitchfork1364
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bicornec1420
hay-fork1552
shed-fork1559
straw-fork1573
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sheppeck1602
corn-pike1611
wain-forka1642
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1602 J. Bruen in W. Hinde Life (1641) xlvi. 147 One casting a pikell..one being behind him, the two greins of the pikell ran on both sides of his leg, and hurt him not.
1681 P. Henry Diaries & Lett. (1882) 307 From ye lower Hay~bay..they pitcht it and carry'd it on Pikehils to ye Carts.
1688 R. Holme Acad. Armory iii. 73/1 Take..a Pikell of Hay, as much as hangs together on the points or grains of a Pikell.
1731 J. Byrom in Remains Hist. & Lit. Lancaster & Chester (1855) XXXIV. 491 The instrument that it was to be tossed out by, a plain country pikel, pikehill—how do you spell it, you longhand folks?
1841 S. Bamford Passages Life Radical I. xxxvii. 216 Some had been grinding scythes, others..screw-drivers, rusty swords, pikels, and mop-nails.
1874 R. W. Procter Memorials Manchester Streets vii. 87 Her Majesty..had seen the threatening clouds ‘rain poikels’,—as Lancashire alone can rain them.
1879 Eddowes' Shrewsbury Jrnl. 3 Sept. Charge of stabbing with a pikel.
1940 John o' London's 3 May 150/2 One of the more excited of the farmhands then threw a ‘pikle’ at the bull.
1995 Countryman Winter 88 A reaching pikel (a long-handled, two-pronged hay-fork) was employed.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1602