dike

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See also Dike, Dikê, dikë, and Dikē

Contents

English [edit]

Alternative forms [edit]

Pronunciation [edit]

Etymology [edit]

Middle English (Northern) dik, dike, from Old Norse díki 'ditch, dike'. More at and doublet of ditch.

Noun [edit]

dike (plural dikes)

  1. (UK) The northern English form of ditch.
  2. A ditch and bank running alongside each other.
  3. A barrier of stone or earth used to hold back water and prevent flooding.
    • 1891: (Can we date this quote?) Susan Hale, Mexico, volume 27, The Story of the Nations, London: T. Fisher Unwin, page 100:
      • The king of Texcuco advised the building of a great dike, so thick and strong as to keep out the water.
  4. (pejorative) A lesbian, especially a manly or unattractive lesbian.
  5. (geology) A body of once molten igneous rock that was injected into older rocks in a manner that crosses bedding planes.

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Antonyms [edit]

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Verb [edit]

dike (third-person singular simple present dikes, present participle diking, simple past and past participle diked)

  1. (transitive) To surround or protect with a dike or dry bank; to secure with a bank.
    • 2001 November 16, Karen F. Schmidt, “ECOLOGY: A True-Blue Vision for the Danube[1], Science, volume 294, number 5546, DOI:10.1126/science.294.5546.1444, pages 1444-1447: 
      Next News Focus ECOLOGY: A True-Blue Vision for the Danube Karen F. Schmidt * Romanian scientists are at the forefront of a European effort to balance the protection and exploitation of vast, diverse wetlands B UCHAREST-- In 1983, dictator Nicolae Ceausescu decreed that the Romanian Danube delta, one of Europe's largest wetlands, be diked for growing rice and maize.
    • 1996 September 27, Michael Miner, “WVON Won't Take the Bait/Meigs and the Dailies: The Long View”, Chicago Reader:
      Lakeside water-filtration plants, an 11,000-acre diked airport east of 55th Street, slash-and-bulldoze highway projects through Jackson and Lincoln parks--these and many another grandiose project leapt from the sketchbooks of city planners.
  2. (transitive) To drain by a dike or ditch.

Esperanto [edit]

Adverb [edit]

dike

  1. thickly

Swedish [edit]

Noun [edit]

dike n

  1. ditch; a small canal, for irrigation or drainage
    Han körde i diket med sin nya bil.
    He went off the road with (ditched) his new car.

Declension [edit]

Usage notes [edit]

  • The phrase "köra i diket" (to ditch) is used also when there's no ditch.

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References [edit]