# dyke

Pronunciation: US say "DYK" /daɪk/; UK

## Noun

1. An offensive slang word for a lesbian, especially one seen as masculine, and by extension for any woman who is not heterosexual or any woman thought to look or act masculine. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A rude, offensive word for a lesbian, or for any woman someone thinks looks or acts like a man.
2. A bank of earth, especially one built to keep the sea or a flooding river from covering low land. *(UK)*
   - Simple: A long wall of earth built to stop the sea or a river from flooding the land.
   - _Large parts of the Netherlands lie below sea level, protected by dykes and pumping stations._
   - _When the dyke gave way, seawater poured across the fields and into the village._
3. A sheet of rock that fills a crack cutting through older rock layers, usually formed when molten rock flowed in and hardened. *(UK)*
   - Simple: A sheet of rock that fills a crack in older rock, usually formed when melted rock flowed in and cooled.
   - _A dark basalt dyke cuts across the pale sandstone of the cliff in a ruler-straight line._
   - _Geologists mapped dozens of intrusive dykes radiating out from the old volcano._
4. A low wall, earth bank, fence or hedge that encloses land and marks a boundary. *(dialectal, Scotland, UK)*
   - Simple: A low wall, bank, fence or hedge around a field that shows where it ends.
   - _Sheep sheltered from the wind behind the dry stone dyke at the top of the hill._
   - _The old dykes that divide the glen into fields were built without a drop of mortar._
5. A ditch or channel that carries water, or any stream or watercourse, sometimes one large enough for boats. *(UK)*
   - Simple: A long ditch or small river that water flows along.
   - _The fields are drained by a dyke that runs along the edge of the lane._
   - _After weeks of rain the dykes were brimming and the meadows were waterlogged._
6. A long, narrow ditch dug to mark a boundary. *(UK)*
   - Simple: A long, narrow ditch dug to show where one piece of land ends.
   - _The medieval dyke that divided the two estates can still be traced across the fields._
   - _The charter fixed the parish boundary along a dyke running from the church to the river._
8. Any barrier, obstacle, or difficulty that holds something back. *(UK)*
   - Simple: Something that blocks the way or makes things hard.
9. A raised causeway, a road or path built up above low or wet ground. *(UK)*
   - Simple: A raised road or path across wet or low land.
   - _The only way across the marsh was a narrow dyke wide enough for one cart._
   - _At high tide the dyke to the island disappears under the water._
12. A toilet, whether an outhouse or an indoor lavatory. *(slang, Australia, UK)*
   - Simple: A toilet, inside or in a small hut outside.
   - _The old dyke stood at the bottom of the yard, and nobody wanted to use it after dark._
   - _Back in a sec, mate, I'm just ducking out to the dyke._

## Verb

7. To build an earth bank that holds back the sea or a river. *(UK)*
   - Simple: To build a high bank of earth to keep the sea or a river out.
   - _Dutch engineers were hired to dyke the river where it flooded the meadows each spring._
   - _For generations the marsh villages dyked and drained, winning grazing land from the sea._
11. To enclose land with a low wall of earth or stone. *(dialectal, Scotland, UK)*
   - Simple: To build a low wall of earth or stones around a piece of land.
   - _The estate paid local men to dyke the hill fields with stone gathered from the burn._
   - _Crofters would dyke a patch of moor and clear it for potatoes._
13. To dig a ditch, or to surround a place with ditches, especially to defend it. *(UK)*
   - Simple: To dig a long ditch, or dig ditches around a place to protect it.
   - _Before the rains came, the tenants had to dyke the bottom meadow to drain it._
   - _Whole families dyked and hedged through the winter months to bring the fen into cultivation._
14. To scour out a ditch, stream, or other watercourse, clearing whatever blocks it. *(UK)*
   - Simple: To clean out a stream or ditch so the water can flow.
   - _The drainage board sends a crew out each year to dyke the main channel and clear the reeds._
   - _Once the brook had been dyked, the water ran freely past the mill again._

## Noun

10. Any hole or hollow dug into the ground. *(obsolete, UK)*
   - Simple: Any hole dug in the ground.

## Other meanings

- (noun) A structure built out from the shore into the water, such as a jetty or pier.
- (noun) Any small body of water, such as a pond or pool.
- (noun) A wall; in particular, a masoned city or castle wall, a use now obsolete outside heraldry.
- (noun) A dam built by beavers.
- (verb) To steep fibers by leaving them to soak in a stream or other watercourse.

## Origin

**Meanings 2–14** — A variant of dike, from Northern Middle English dik ("ditch"), from Old Norse díki, helped along by Middle Dutch dijc ("ditch; dam"). The word moved from the ditch itself to the bank of earth thrown up beside it, and then to a bank built against floods.
**Meaning 1** — Of uncertain origin; it is attested since the 1930s or 1940s, while the forms bull dyke and bulldyker referred to women earlier, from at least the 1920s. Proposed sources include a development from dyke ("ditch") and a shortening of morphodyke, from morphodite, but the derivation may run the other way, and none is settled.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/dyke (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).