dyke
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: business
geography
geology
mining
natural-sciences
Etymology: A 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.
Ultimately from Proto-Germanic *dīkiją (“trench, ditch”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeygʷ- (“stick into, pierce; dig, stick a spade into”). The semantic evolution (also seen in several cognate words) was from "stick (a spade) into" to "dig" to "hole or other product of digging", "excavation", then the ridge of earth created when excavating a ditch, then to a ridge of earth intended to prevent flooding.
Inflected forms:
form: dykes
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: dike
pos: noun
tags: alternative
US
form: dykes
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: dyking
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: dyked
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: dyked
pos: verb
tags: past
form: dike
pos: verb
tags: alternative
US
Senses:
gloss: An earthwork raised to prevent inundation of low land by the sea or flooding rivers.
pos: noun
tags: UK
examples: The king of Texcuco advised the building of a great dike, so thick and strong as to keep out the water.
Serious as was the flood damage in England, the bursting of some of the dykes on the coast of Holland resulted in an even more widespread and devastating inundation.
gloss: A low embankment or stone wall serving as an enclosure and boundary marker.
pos: noun
tags: Scotland
UK
examples: The Galloway Dyke / In southwest Scotland there is a local style of dry stone dyke that is now recognized as 'the Galloway dyke', although when this pattern of ^([sic]) was first developed, it was simply described as 'the sheep dyke'.'
gloss: A raised causeway.
pos: noun
tags: UK
gloss: A long, narrow hollow dug from the ground to conduct water.
pos: noun
tags: UK
historical
gloss: Any navigable watercourse.
pos: noun
tags: UK
dialectal
gloss: Any watercourse.
pos: noun
tags: UK
dialectal
gloss: Any small body of water.
pos: noun
tags: UK
dialectal
gloss: A body of rock (usually igneous) originally filling a fissure but now often rising above the older stratum as it is eroded away.
pos: noun
tags: UK
examples: Their exact relationship to the host-rock is obscure but from their texture and observed metamorphic relationship they are thought to be intrusive dykes rather than intercalations of more basic lava.
gloss: A place to urinate and defecate: an outhouse or lavatory.
pos: noun
tags: Australia
UK
slang
examples: In Cubbaroo's dim distant past
 They built a double dyke.
 Back to back in the yard it stood
 An architectural dream in wood.
gloss: An embankment formed by the spoil from the creation of a ditch.
pos: noun
tags: UK
gloss: Any hollow dug into the ground.
pos: noun
tags: UK
obsolete
gloss: A long, narrow hollow dug from the ground to serve as a boundary marker.
pos: noun
tags: UK
historical
gloss: A wall, especially (obsolete outside heraldry) a masoned city or castle wall.
pos: noun
tags: UK
examples: Inchbrakie gives for Arms, Or, a Dyke (or Wall) Feſsways, broke down in ſome places, and in Baſe a Roſe Gules, on a chief Sable three Eſcalops of the firſt. The Dyke (or Wall) here, is aſſumed not only to difference, but to perpetuate the valiant Action of Graham before mentioned; in throwing down the Wall and Ditch, which the Romans made betwixt Forth and Clyde, to keep out the Scots, [...]
Wall, (sometimes called a dyke, fr. mur) : this is generally found in connection with castles or towns which are walled (muraillé). A wall of which kind should be masoned (fr. maçonné) and embattled (fr. crenellé), even though this be not specified. [...] Or, a dyke [or wall] fesswise [masoned proper] broken down in some places gules; [...] —Graham, Inchbrakie, Scotland [similar arms borne by Græme of Stapleton].
The Galloway Dyke / In southwest Scotland there is a local style of dry stone dyke that is now recognized as 'the Galloway dyke', although when this pattern of was first developed, it was simply described as 'the sheep dyke'.'
gloss: Any fence or hedge.
pos: noun
tags: UK
dialectal
gloss: Any impediment, barrier, or difficulty.
pos: noun
tags: UK
figuratively
gloss: A beaver's dam.
pos: noun
tags: UK
gloss: A jetty; a pier.
pos: noun
tags: UK
dialectal
gloss: A fissure in a rock stratum filled with intrusive rock; a fault.
pos: noun
tags: UK
dialectal
gloss: To dig, particularly to create a ditch.
pos: verb
tags: UK
intransitive
transitive
examples: He finds out, soon enough for his weal and his bane, that he is stronger than Nature: and right tyrannously and irreverently he lords it over her, clearing, delving, dyking, building, without fear or shame.
gloss: To surround with a ditch, to entrench.
pos: verb
tags: UK
transitive
gloss: To surround with a low dirt or stone wall.
pos: verb
tags: Scotland
UK
transitive
gloss: To raise a protective earthwork against a sea or river.
pos: verb
tags: UK
intransitive
transitive
gloss: To scour a watercourse.
pos: verb
tags: UK
transitive
gloss: To steep [fibers] within a watercourse.
pos: verb
tags: UK
transitive
Synonyms: ditch
trench
fosse
bank
embankment
earthwork
Related words: ditch
dig
Derived words: Devil's Dyke
dry-stone dyke
dyke-back
dyke bottom
dykelet
dyke-phase
dyke phase
dyke road
dyke-rock
dyke swarm
dyke-swarm
dyke up
fail dyke
February fill-dyke
fill-dyke
finger in the dyke
King's Dyke
Translations: