slang term for a member of the Anglican Church who favors and is at times outright preoccupied with Anglo-Catholic ritual and observance and is a general know-it-all and smart
ass about all such matters. Often characterized as a fussy, effeminate younger
male, either clergy or layman.
The term
may have arisen from humorous observations on the extreme inflexibility and "uprightness" of such individuals as well as their tendency to be very temperamental, or spiky.
He loved candles, bells, incense, fiddleback chasubles; the whole liturgical
nine yards. He couldn't
imagine church being any other
way. In other words, a classic spike.