ditch
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English [edit]
Pronunciation [edit]
Etymology 1 [edit]
From earlier deche, from Middle English dechen, from Old English dēcan (“to smear, plaster, daub”). More at deech.
Verb [edit]
ditch (third-person singular simple present ditches, present participle ditching, simple past and past participle ditched)
- Alternative form of deech.
Noun [edit]
ditch (usually uncountable; plural ditches)
- Alternative form of deech.
Etymology 2 [edit]
From Middle English dich, from Old English dīċ ‘trench, moat’, from Proto-Germanic *dīkaz (cf. West Frisian dyk ‘dam’, Dutch dijk ‘id.’, German Teich ‘pond’, Icelandic díki), from Proto-Indo-European *dheigʷ ‘to stick, set up’ (cf. Latin fīgō ‘to affix, fasten’, Lithuanian diegti ‘to prick; plant’, dýgsti ‘to geminate, grow’). Doublet of dike.
Noun [edit]
ditch (plural ditches)
- A trench; a long, shallow indentation, as for irrigation or drainage.
- Digging ditches has long been considered one of the most demanding forms of manual labor.
Derived terms [edit]
Translations [edit]
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See also [edit]
Verb [edit]
ditch (third-person singular simple present ditches, present participle ditching, simple past and past participle ditched)
- (transitive) To discard or abandon.
- Once the sun came out we ditched our rain-gear and started a campfire.
- (intransitive) To deliberately crash-land an airplane on the sea.
- When the second engine failed, the pilot was forced to ditch; their last location was just south of the Azores.
- (intransitive) To deliberately not attend classes; to play hookey.
- The truant officer caught Louise ditching with her friends, and her parents were forced to pay a fine.
- (intransitive) To dig ditches.
- Enclosure led to fuller winter employment in hedging and ditching.
- (transitive) To dig ditches around.
- The soldiers ditched the tent to prevent flooding.
Synonyms [edit]
Translations [edit]
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