dike
dike Lexical Profile
dike Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A long wall or embankment built to prevent flooding from the sea or a river.
"Engineers reinforced the coastal dike to protect the low-lying farmland from storm surges."
A ditch or narrow watercourse dug for drainage or irrigation.
"Rainwater from the upper pastures flowed steadily into the drainage dike along the road."
In geology, a tabular or sheet-like body of igneous rock (or occasionally sedimentary rock) that cuts across the bedding or structural planes of the surrounding pre-existing rock.
"The dark basaltic dike stood out sharply against the pale sandstone cliff where it had intruded millions of years ago."
• verb
To provide, enclose, or protect with an embankment or levee against flooding.
"Early settlers diked the tidal marshes to reclaim fertile soil for agriculture."
Word Nuance & Usage
Spelled 'dike' in American English and commonly 'dyke' in British English; the word can refer to either an elevated embankment or an excavated ditch, having evolved from a single root for digging a trench and piling up the earth beside it.
• Rhymes for dike
Word Origin & Etymology
From Old English 'dic' (trench or ditch), fortified by Middle Dutch 'dijc' (mound or dam), ultimately tracing back to the Proto-Germanic root '*dikiz', which is also the source of the word 'ditch'.