dyke
An earthwork raised to prevent inundation of low land by the sea or flooding riversAn earthwork raised to prevent inundation of low land by the sea or flooding rivers.
» The marshland is protected by dykes.
Die Marschen werden durch Deiche geschützt.
Meaning
21 senses(UK)An earthwork raised to prevent inundation of low land by the sea or flooding rivers.
(Scotland, UK)A low embankment or stone wall serving as an enclosure and boundary marker.
(UK)A raised causeway.
(UK, historical)A long, narrow hollow dug from the ground to conduct water.
(UK, dialectal)Any navigable watercourse.
(UK, dialectal)Any watercourse.
(UK, dialectal)Any small body of water.
(UK)A body of rock (usually igneous) originally filling a fissure but now often rising above the older stratum as it is eroded away.
Gesteinsgang
(Australia, UK, slang)A place to urinate and defecate: an outhouse or lavatory.
(UK)An embankment formed by the spoil from the creation of a ditch.
Graben
сто́чная кана́ваstóčnaja kanáva, кана́ваkanáva, ровrov
(UK, historical)A long, narrow hollow dug from the ground to serve as a boundary marker.
(UK)A wall, especially (obsolete outside heraldry) a masoned city or castle wall.
Examples
5 sentencesThe marshland is protected by dykes.
deDie Marschen werden durch Deiche geschützt.
The marshes are protected by dykes.
deDie Marschen werden durch Deiche geschützt.
The dyke was repaired and the seawater was pumped out.
I live near the dyke.
deIch wohne in der Nähe vom Deich.
Some gay people are totally fine being called fags and dykes by other gay people and self identify with the terms.
Translations
8 languagesBy meaning 3
By meaning 4
Origin
A variant of dike, from Northern Middle English dik and dike (“ditch”), from Old Norse díkA 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.
Uncertain. Attested since the 1940s (in Berrey and Van den Bark’s 1942 American Thesaurus of Slang) or 30s. Semantic development from dyke (“ditch”) has been proposed, and some sources from the 1890s are said to record dyke as slang for "vulva" and hedge of the dyke as slang for "pubic hair", but Green's Dictionary of Slang says this is not found in connection to lesbianism and Dictionary.com considers a connection unlikely.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source