DITCH

Ditch

A ditch is usually defined as a small to moderate depression created to channel water. In Anglo-Saxon, the word dïc already existed and was pronounced "deek" in northern England and "deetch" in the south. The origins of the word lie in digging a trench and forming the upcast soil into a bank alongside it. This practice has meant that the name dïc was given to either the excavation or the bank, and evolved to both the words "dike"/"dyke" and "ditch". Thus Offa's Dyke is a combined structure and Car Dyke is a trench, though it once had raised banks as well. In the midlands and north of England, and ...

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ditch

Noun

Noun (etymology 2)

  1. 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.

Verb

Verb (etymology 2)

  1. To discard or abandon.
    Once the sun came out we ditched our rain-gear and started a campfire.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. To dig ditches.
    Enclosure led to fuller winter employment in hedging and ditching.
  5. To dig ditches around.
    The soldiers ditched the tent to prevent flooding.
  6. To throw into a ditch.
    The engine was ditched and turned on its side.


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: ditch
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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