Category:Dike

Dike, n. Etym: [OE. dic, dike, diche, ditch, AS. d dike, ditch; akin to D. dijk dike, G. deich, and prob. teich pond, Icel. d dike, ditch, Dan. dige; perh. akin to Gr. dough; or perh. to Gr. 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.)

Defn: A wall-like mass of mineral matter, usually an intrusion of igneous rocks, filling up rents or fissures in the original strata.

dike Dike, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Diked; p. pr. & vb. n. Diking.] Etym: [OE. diken, dichen, AS. dician 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.

dike Dike, v. i.

Defn: To work as a ditcher; to dig. [Obs.] He would thresh and thereto dike and delve. Chaucer.