ditch
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /dɪt͡ʃ/
rhymes: -ɪtʃ
Forms: form: ditches
Etymology: From Middle English dich, from Old English dīċ (“trench, moat”) from Proto-Germanic *dīkaz (compare Swedish dike, Icelandic díki, West Frisian dyk (“dam”), Dutch dijk (“dam”), German Teich (“pond”)), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeygʷ- (“to stick, set up”) (compare Latin fīgō (“to affix, fasten”), Lithuanian diegti (“to prick; plant”), dýgsti (“to geminate, grow”)). Doublet of dike.
Senses: examples: text: Digging ditches has long been considered one of the most demanding forms of manual labor.
text: The truck careered off the road into a ditch.
text: Ditches continued to be employed as the sole defensive measure at many sites even after wall building began to emerge. For example, an immense ditch varying between 15 and 20 meters in width and marked by depths of 2.5 to 3.8 meters has recently been discovered in Hubei near Sui-chou.
ref: 2011, Ralph D. Sawyer, Ancient Chinese Warfare, Basic Books, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 30:
glosses: A trench; a long, shallow indentation, as for irrigation or drainage.
examples: text: You flung a ditch on my vision
Of beauty, love and truth.
O stony grey soil of Monaghan
You burgled my bank of youth!
ref: c. 1947, Patrick Kavanagh, “Stony Grey Soil”, Poetry Selections, in Ireland Study Abroad, University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University, archived from the original on 14 Mar 2021, page 1:
text: The original ditches were created by digging trenches, as boundaries and/or irrigation. But to the English, the ditch is the trench. Whereas in Ireland, the ditch is the raised bank of earth and the hedgerow on top. (As for the trench, where I come from that’s a sheugh).
ref: 2013 October 31, Frank McNally, “When Anglophone lines get crossed”, in The Irish Times, Dublin: Irish Times Trust, archived from the original on 14 Mar 2021:
glosses: A raised bank of earth and the hedgerow on top.
Derived terms: sense: Terms derived from the noun "ditch"
word: across the ditch
sense: Terms derived from the noun "ditch"
word: bar ditch
sense: Terms derived from the noun "ditch"
word: Black Ditch
sense: Terms derived from the noun "ditch"
word: dead as ditch-water
sense: Terms derived from the noun "ditch"
word: die in the last ditch
sense: Terms derived from the noun "ditch"
word: ding-dong ditch
sense: Terms derived from the noun "ditch"
word: ditch day
sense: Terms derived from the noun "ditch"
word: ditchdigger
sense: Terms derived from the noun "ditch"
word: ditchdigging
sense: Terms derived from the noun "ditch"
word: ditcher
sense: Terms derived from the noun "ditch"
word: Ditchfield
sense: Terms derived from the noun "ditch"
word: ditchfinder
sense: Terms derived from the noun "ditch"
word: ditch jewel
sense: Terms derived from the noun "ditch"
word: ditchless
sense: Terms derived from the noun "ditch"
word: ditchlet
sense: Terms derived from the noun "ditch"
word: ditchlike
sense: Terms derived from the noun "ditch"
word: ditchside
sense: Terms derived from the noun "ditch"
word: ditch stonecrop
sense: Terms derived from the noun "ditch"
word: ditchwater
sense: Terms derived from the noun "ditch"
word: ditch weed
sense: Terms derived from the noun "ditch"
word: Ditch Witch
sense: Terms derived from the noun "ditch"
word: ditchy
sense: Terms derived from the noun "ditch"
word: hurler on the ditch
sense: Terms derived from the noun "ditch"
word: itch the ditch
sense: Terms derived from the noun "ditch"
word: last-ditch
sense: Terms derived from the noun "ditch"
word: ox is in the ditch
sense: Terms derived from the noun "ditch"
word: Quidditch
sense: Terms derived from the noun "ditch"
word: snitches get stitches and wind up in ditches
sense: Terms derived from the noun "ditch"
word: stitch in the ditch
sense: Terms derived from the noun "ditch"
word: The Ditch
Related terms: fosse
moat
The Ditch
rhubarb