hiker








verb (used without object), hiked, hik·ing.

  1. to walk or march a great distance, especially through rural areas, for pleasure, exercise, military training, or the like.
  2. to move up or rise, as out of place or position (often followed by up): My shirt hikes up if I don’t wear a belt.
  3. Nautical. to hold oneself outboard on the windward side of a heeling sailboat to reduce the amount of heel.

verb (used with object), hiked, hik·ing.

  1. to move, draw, or raise with a jerk (often followed by up): to hike up one’s socks.
  2. to increase, often sharply and unexpectedly: to hike the price of milk.

noun

  1. a long walk or march for recreational activity, military training, or the like.
  2. an increase or rise, often sharp and unexpected: a hike in wages.
Idioms
  1. take a hike, Slang. to go away because one’s company is not desired.

verb

  1. (intr) to walk a long way, usually for pleasure or exercise, esp in the country
  2. (usually foll by up) to pull or be pulled; hitch
  3. (tr) to increase (a price)

noun

  1. a long walk
  2. a rise in prices, wages, etc
n.

1913, agent noun from hike (v.). Earlier as a type of boat:

The “hiker” or “tuck-up” as it is more generally termed, is a craft peculiar to the Delaware River, and is to the youth residing along the banks of that stream what the racing shell is to the Torontonian …. The origin of the name “hiker” is veiled in mystery. No member of the clubs engaged in sailing these boats can give anything like a satisfactory derivation of the word. The most common explanation is that it is corrupted from the local verb “to hike,” which means to run or fly swiftly. [“Harper’s Young People,” 1885]

v.

1809, hyke “to walk vigorously,” an English dialectal word of unknown origin. A yike from 1736 answers to the sense.

HIKE, v. to go away. It is generally used in a contemptuous sense. Ex. “Come, hike,” i.e. take yourself off; begone. [Rev. Robert Forby, “The Vocabulary of East Anglia,” London, 1830]

Sense of “pull up” (as pants) first recorded 1873 in American English, and may be a variant of hitch; extended sense of “raise” (as wages) is 1867. Related: Hiked; hiking. The noun is from 1865.

see take a hike.

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