English Explanatory Dictionary

dyke

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. An earthwork raised to prevent inundation of low land by the sea or flooding rivers.
  2. A low embankment or stone wall serving as an enclosure and boundary marker.
  3. A raised causeway.
  4. A long, narrow hollow dug from the ground to conduct water.
  5. Any navigable watercourse.
  6. Any watercourse.
  7. Any small body of water.
  8. A body of rock (usually igneous) originally filling a fissure but now often rising above the older stratum as it is eroded away.
  9. A place to urinate and defecate: an outhouse or lavatory.
  10. An embankment formed by the spoil from the creation of a ditch.
  11. Any hollow dug into the ground.
  12. A long, narrow hollow dug from the ground to serve as a boundary marker.
verb
  1. To dig, particularly to create a ditch.
  2. To surround with a ditch, to entrench.
  3. To surround with a low dirt or stone wall.
  4. To raise a protective earthwork against a sea or river.
  5. To scour a watercourse.
  6. To steep [fibers] within a watercourse.
noun
  1. A lesbian, particularly one with masculine or butch traits or behavior.
  2. A non-heterosexual woman.
  3. A masculine woman.
name
  1. A village in Bourne parish, South Kesteven district, Lincolnshire, England, named after Car Dyke (OS grid ref TF1022).
  2. A small village in Moray council area, Scotland (OS grid ref NH9858).
  3. An unincorporated community in Greene County, Virginia, United States.
  4. A surname.

Pronunciation

/ˈdaɪ̯k/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-dyke.wav /ˈdʌɪ̯k/ /ˈdɜɪ̯k/ /ˈdʌi̯k/ /ˈdəi̯k/

Word forms

dyke dykes dike dyking dyked

Etymology

A variant of dike, from Northern Middle English dik and dike (“ditch”), from Old Norse díki (“ditch”). Influenced by Middle Dutch dijc (“ditch; dam”) and Middle Low German dīk (“dam”). See also ditch. Ultimately from Proto-Germanic *dīkiją (“trench, ditch”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeygʷ- (“stick into, pierce; dig, stick a spade into”). The semantic evolution (also seen in several cognate words) was from "stick (a spade) into" to "dig" to "hole or other product of digging", "excavation", then the ridge of earth created when excavating a ditch, then to a ridge of earth intended to prevent flooding.

Synonyms

ditch trench fosse bank embankment earthwork puddle pond pool lakelet mere den cave hole pit dam levee breakwater floodwall seawall

Related words

ditch dig

Derived words

Devil's Dyke dry-stone dyke dyke-back dyke bottom dykelet dyke-phase dyke phase dyke road dyke-rock dyke swarm dyke-swarm dyke up fail dyke February fill-dyke fill-dyke finger in the dyke King's Dyke bi-dyke big dyke energy boydyke bull dyke busy as a dyke in a hardware store designer dyke diesel dyke dykedar dykedom dykehood dykeling dyke out dykephobia dykery dyke tyke dykey dykish dykon kike dyke leatherdyke tryke Jost van Dyke

Translations

Danish: betonlebbe Finnish: rekkalesbo French: gouine German: Kampflesbe Japanese: おなべ Polish: męska lesbijka Portuguese: sapatão Portuguese: caminhoneira Portuguese: fufa Russian: кобёл
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on D Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary