Hypertext Webster Gateway: "Dike"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Dike \Dike\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Diked}; p. pr. & vb. n.
{Diking}.] [OE. diken, dichen, AS. d[=i]cian to dike. See
{Dike}.]
1. To surround or protect with a dike or dry bank; to secure
with a bank.
2. To drain by a dike or ditch.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Dike \Dike\, v. i.
To work as a ditcher; to dig. [Obs.]
He would thresh and thereto dike and delve. --Chaucer.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Dike \Dike\, n. [OE. dic, dike, diche, ditch, AS. d?c dike,
ditch; akin to D. dijk dike, G. deich, and prob. teich pond,
Icel. d?ki dike, ditch, Dan. dige; perh. akin to Gr. ? (for
?) wall, and even E. dough; or perh. to Gr. ? pool, marsh.
Cf. {Ditch}.]
1. A ditch; a channel for water made by digging.
Little channels or dikes cut to every bed. --Ray.
2. An embankment to prevent inundations; a levee.
Dikes that the hands of the farmers had raised . . .
Shut out the turbulent tides. --Longfellow.
3. A wall of turf or stone. [Scot.]
4. (Geol.) A wall-like mass of mineral matter, usually an
intrusion of igneous rocks, filling up rents or fissures
in the original strata.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
dike
n 1: offensive terms for a lesbian who is noticeably masculine
[syn: {butch}, {dyke}]
2: a barrier constructed to contain the flow or water or to
keep out the sea [syn: {dam}, {dyke}, {levee}]
v : enclose with a dike; "dike the land to protect it from
water" [syn: {dyke}]
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