unspike

verb

1. To remove a spike from.

   “To unspike a cannon, attempt to drive the spike into the bore with a punch; if this succeeds, and the bore be obstructed, introduce powder into the vent to force the obstacle out.”

   “However, neither the wording of the agreement nor the conduct of the parties under it lends support to the proposition that Signal Maintainers have a right either to demand that they be allowed to unspike and spike hand switches or that they be compensated when an employee of some other class performs such work.”

   “It became necessary to move out some of the stored cars, and the carrier used a track foreman to unspike the switch. The spike had to be removed by the use of crowbars and other tools which were in the track foreman's custody.”

   “Machine automatically unspikes the old bag and spikes the new bag .”

   “Oh, I'm penitent enough for the Seventh Heaven, but as to kneeling, observe, good friend, how the wicked have transfixed my extremities with nails! Why, bless you, I can move neither hand nor foot! Unspike me , friend - withdraw the iron restraints of the law and see how quickly I will kneel [upon the body of some one whom I hate. It is the dream of my life!]”

2. To make or become less spiky.

   “He can easily unspike his hair and float the skateboard down the river.”

   “Josie had interviewed Colt for an evening dispatcher's position about a year ago, but the girl had refused to unspike her hair or remove her facial piercings.”

   “Her hair was beginning to unspike, and her clothes were plastered to her like a second skin.”

3. To return to a normal level after a very high spike.

   “The applied (or absorbed) microwave power in the plasma does not appear to have a first order affect on the conditions at which the plasma either spikes or unspikes.”

   “And everybody thought for sure that this woman would never, ever leave the hospital. That she'd never unspike [ return to normal body temperature ], that she'd develop antibiotic-resistant germs, that she couldn't have physical therapy, couldn't have her wound handled couldn't have this stuff done.”

   “The TRACE images were calibrated using the TRACE instrument software package, trace-prep, including wave2point, destreak, deripple, unspike, and normalize.”

4. To neutralize the alcohol (or other adulterant) in a food, drink, or other substance.

   “HOW TO UNSPIKE OUR SWEETS Our spiked desserts ( pages 104-105 ) have real punch!”

noun

1. An instance of unspiking (any sense).

   “This included an unspike oxygen uptake of mixed liquor, and a mixed liquor sample spiked with 10% by volume primary effluent.”

   “The sonogram and the cardiogram chart reflect the forward push of the heart shoving the blood through the veins: the unspike.”

   “Compared to the case of simple homotopies, in a (non-simple) homotopy, we remove the hypothesis that the curves are simple and we allow two new moves, spikes and unspikes, leveraging this non-simplicity.”