bike

English

Wikipedia

A bike.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -aɪk

Etymology 1

From bicycle, by shortening, and possibly alteration.

One explanation for the pronunciation is that bicycle is parsed to bi(cy)c(le). An alternative explanation is that bicycle is shortened to bic(ycle), and the terminal [s] is converted to a [k] because there is an underlying underspecified [k]/[s] sound, which is softened to [s] in bicycle but retained as [k] in bike; compare the letter ‘c’ (used for [k]/[s]).

Noun

bike (plural bikes)

1. A short form of bicycle.
2. A short form of motorcycle.
3. (slang) A promiscuous woman; from “the town bike (everybody rides her)”.

Synonyms

• (motorcycle): motorbike
• (woman): slapper (British), slag (British)

Derived terms

• (bicycle) dirt bike; like riding a bike; mountain bike; road bike; bike rental
• (motorcycle) biker; bikey or bikie (Australia); quad bike
• (woman) town bike

Translations

bicycle

• Armenian: հեծանիվ (hy) (heçaniv), (colloquial) հեծո (hy) (heço)
• Basque: bizikleta (eu)
• Czech: kolo (cs) n
• Dutch: fiets m, velo m (slang, Belgium)
• Finnish: pyörä (fi), polkupyörä (fi)
• French: vélo (fr) m
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: Fahrrad n, Rad n, Velo n (Switzerland, colloquial) Drahtesel
• Hungarian: bicaj (slang), bicó (slang), bringa (slang)
• Indonesian: sepeda (id)
• Italian: bici (slang) f
• Japanese: 自転車 (じてんしゃ, jitensha), チャリンコ (charinko, slang)
• Lithuanian: dviratis (lt) m
• Norwegian: sykkel (no) m
• Persian: دوچرخه (fa)

• Polish: rower (pl) m
• Portuguese: bici (pt) f
• Romanian: bicicletă (ro) f
• Russian: велосипед (ru) (velosipéd), (colloquial) велик (ru) (vélik)
• Scottish Gaelic: baic (gd) m, bàic (gd) m
• Serbo-Croatian: bicikl (sh)
• Slovak: bicykel m
• Slovene: kolo (sl) n
• Spanish: bici (es) f
• Swedish: cykel (sv) c
• Volapük: saikul (vo)
• Welsh: beic (cy) m
• West Frisian: fyts
• Yiddish: ביציקל (yi) (bitsíkl) m, ראָווער (yi) (róver) m, וועלאָסיפּעד (yi) (velosipéd) m, ביציקלעט (yi) (bitsiklét) m

motorcycle

• Armenian: մոտոցիկլետ (hy) (motoc’iklet), (colloquial) մոտո (hy) (moto)
• Czech: motorka (cs) f
• Finnish: moottoripyörä (fi)
• French: moto (fr) f
• German: Motorrad (de) n
• Hungarian: motor, motorkerékpár, moci (slang)
• Indonesian: sepeda motor (id)
• Italian: moto (it) f
• Japanese: バイク (ja) (baiku)
• Norwegian: motorsykkel (no) m

• Polish: motocykl (pl) m
• Portuguese: mota (pt) f, moto (pt) f
• Russian: мотоцикл (ru) (motoc’íkl) m
• Scottish Gaelic: bàic (gd) m
• Slovak: motorka (sk) f
• Slovene: motorno kolo n
• Spanish: moto (es) f
• Swedish: mc (sv) c, MC (sv) c, motorcykel (sv) c, båge (sv) c (slang)
• Volapük: motorasaikul (vo)
• Welsh: beic modur (cy) m

promiscuous woman

• French: pute (fr) f, traînée (fr) f
• Italian: puttana (it) f
• Mandarin: 公交车 (Lit：Bus) (cmn) (gong1 jiao1 che1)

• Portuguese: puta (pt) f; (figurative sense: vaca (pt) f, cabra (pt) f)
• Slovak: cundra f
• Welsh: hwren f

See also

• trike

Verb

bike (third-person singular simple present bikes, present participle biking, simple past and past participle biked)

1. To ride a bike.

   I biked so much yesterday that I'm very sore today.

2. To travel by bike.

   It was such a nice day I decided to bike to the store, though it's far enough I usually take my car.

Translations

to bike

• Finnish: pyöräillä (fi), fillaroida (fi)
• German: Rad fahren (de), radeln (de)

• Volapük: saikulön (vo)

Etymology 2

Origin unknown.

Noun

bike (plural bikes)

1. (Scotland, Northern England) A nest of wasps or hornets.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Sir W. Scott to this entry?)

   • 1955, Robin Jenkins, The Cone-Gatherers, Canongate 2012, p. 107:

     he stood for a minute talking to them about their job of gathering cones, and telling them a story about a tree he'd once climbed which had a wasp's byke in it unbeknown to him.

Anagrams

• Beki
• kibe

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Basque

Etymology

Latin pix

Noun

bike

1. pitch

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Italian

Etymology

English

Noun

bike f (invariable)

1. motorbike, motorcycle

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Jèrriais

Etymology

From English bike.

Noun

bike f (plural bikes)

1. bicycle

Derived terms

Derived terms

bike à deux (“tandem”) bike à montangne (“mountain bike”)

c'mîn à bike, sente à bike (“bike path”) par à bikes (“bike rack”)

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Kurdish

Verb

bike

1. Third-person singular future of kirin.