Mer·luce n.  Zool. The European hake; -- called also herring hake and sea pike.

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 Pike n.
 1. Mil. A foot soldier's weapon, consisting of a long wooden shaft or staff, with a pointed steel head. It is now superseded by the bayonet.
 2. A pointed head or spike; esp., one in the center of a shield or target.
 3. A hayfork. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.]
 4. A pick. [Prov. Eng.]
 5. A pointed or peaked hill. [R.]
 6. A large haycock. [Prov. Eng.]
 7. A turnpike; a toll bar.
 8. Zool. sing. & pl. A large fresh-water fish (Esox lucius), found in Europe and America, highly valued as a food fish; -- called also pickerel, gedd, luce, and jack.
 Note: ☞ Blue pike, grass pike, green pike, wall-eyed pike, and yellow pike, are names, not of true pike, but of the wall-eye. See Wall-eye.
 Gar pike. See under Gar.
 Pike perch Zool., any fresh-water fish of the genus Stizostedion (formerly Lucioperca). See Wall-eye, and Sauger.
 Pike pole, a long pole with a pike in one end, used in directing floating logs.
 Pike whale Zool., a finback whale of the North Atlantic (Balænoptera rostrata), having an elongated snout; -- called also piked whale.
 Sand pike Zool., the lizard fish.
 Sea pike Zool., the garfish (a).

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 Sea pike Zool. (a) The garfish. (b) A large serranoid food fish (Centropomus undecimalis) found on both coasts of America; -- called also robalo. (c) The merluce.

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 Gar·fish n.  Zool. (a) A European marine fish (Belone vulgaris); -- called also gar, gerrick, greenback, greenbone, gorebill, hornfish, longnose, mackerel guide, sea needle, and sea pike. (b) One of several species of similar fishes of the genus Tylosurus, of which one species (T. marinus) is common on the Atlantic coast. T. Caribbæus, a very large species, and T. crassus, are more southern; -- called also needlefish. Many of the common names of the European garfish are also applied to the American species.

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