# piker

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈpaɪkə(ɹ)/

## Definitions
1. A soldier armed with a pike, a pikeman.
2. One who bets or gambles only with small amounts of money.
3. A stingy person; a cheapskate.
4. An amateur.
5. A bullock living in the wild. (Also used attributively.)
6. One who refuses to go out with friends, or leaves a party early; a spoilsport or "chicken".
7. One who pikes (quits or backs out of a promise).
8. A male freshman at Cornell University.
9. A tramp; a vagrant.

## Etymology
From pike + -er. In some senses, it has been linked etymologically to the word pikey as well as to Pike County in eastern Missouri https://web.archive.org/web/20051111194645/http://www.yourdictionary.com/ahd/p/p0300200.html. In the latter instance the term originally denoted poor immigrants to California.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/piker