spoke
verbEtymology From Middle English spoke, from Old English spāca, from Proto-West Germanic *spaikā, from Proto-Germanic *spaikō. Compare Scots spaik (“spoke”), Dutch spaak and English spike.
1
To furnish (a wheel) with spokes.
spoke
nounUK /spəʊk/ · US /spoʊk/
Etymology From Middle English spoke, from Old English spāca, from Proto-West Germanic *spaikā, from Proto-Germanic *spaikō. Compare Scots spaik (“spoke”), Dutch spaak and English spike.
1
A support structure that connects the axle or the hub of a wheel to the rim.
- The wheels were at first copies of a light hand-cart wheel, the wood spokes were brought together by tapering the spoke ends and wedging them together at the nave or hub and inserting the other ends in slots in the felloe or wood rim.1921, W. F. Grew, The Cycle Industry, London, page 4:
3
A rung of a ladder.
4
A stick inserted into the wheel of a vehicle to keep the wheel from turning.
5
One of the outlying points in a hub-and-spoke model of transportation.
- Derived terms
- hub-and-spoke, key spoke, leading spoke, multispoke, put a spoke in someone's wheel, respoke, spoke-bone, spoke-dog, spoke key, spokeless, spoke nipple, spokescouncil, spokeshave, spoke-shave, spoke target, spokewise, spoke wrench, spoky, trailing spoke, underspoke