| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| dike1 |
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| PRONUNCIATION: |  d k |
| VARIANT FORMS: | also dyke |
| NOUN: | 1a. An embankment of earth and rock built to prevent floods. b. Chiefly British A low wall, often of sod, dividing or enclosing lands. 2. A barrier blocking a passage, especially for protection. 3. A raised causeway. 4. A ditch; a channel. 5. Geology A long mass of igneous rock that cuts across the structure of adjacent rock. | | TRANSITIVE VERB: | Inflected forms: diked also dyked, dik·ing, dyk·ing, dikes, dykes
1. To protect, enclose, or provide with a dike. 2. To drain with dikes or ditches. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English, from Old English dc, trench. See dhgw- in Appendix I, and from Old Norse dki, ditch. | | OTHER FORMS: | dik er —NOUN
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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