dyke bottom

English

Noun

dyke bottom (plural dyke bottoms)

1. (geology) The bottom of a dyke (earthwork raised to prevent the inundation of lowland by flooding.)
   • 1912, Estate Gazette, Limited (publisher), The Estates Gazette Digest of Land and Property Cases, page 249:

     Defendant deposited the refuse from the dyke bottom still further on plaintiff's land, so that the total encroachment now varied from 5 ft. 5 in. to 5 ft. 10 in.

   • 2003, John Clare, "I Am" - The Selected Poetry of John Clare, page 262:

     One night I lay in a dyke bottom from the wind and went sleep half an hour when I suddenly awoke and found one side wet through from the sock in the dyke bottom , so I got out and went on.

   • 2012, David S Neal, Angela Wardle, Jonathan Hunn, Excavation of the Iron Age, Roman and Medieval Settlement at Gorhambury, St Albans, page 18:

     Allowing for erosion it is estimated that that its 45° slope from bank top to dyke bottom was originally 12m.