Word.ws English Dictionary

dyke

/ˈdaɪ̯k/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Scotland/ˈdʌi̯k/

dyke noun: an earthwork raised to prevent inundation of low land by the sea or flooding rivers.

Noun (1)

dyke (plural dykes)

  1. (UK) An earthwork raised to prevent inundation of low land by the sea or flooding rivers.
    • The king of Texcuco advised the building of a great dike, so thick and strong as to keep out the water.1891, Susan Hale, The Story of Nations: Mexico, page 100
    • Serious as was the flood damage in England, the bursting of some of the dykes on the coast of Holland resulted in an even more widespread and devastating inundation.1953 April, “Devastation in Holland”, in Railway Magazine, page 217
  2. (Scotland, UK) A low embankment or stone wall serving as an enclosure and boundary marker.
    • The Galloway Dyke / In southwest Scotland there is a local style of dry stone dyke that is now recognized as 'the Galloway dyke', although when this pattern of ^([sic]) was first developed, it was simply described as 'the sheep dyke'.'2023 February 21, Nick Aitken, Dry Stone Walling - Materials and Techniques, The Crowood Press, →ISBN
  3. (UK) A raised causeway.
  4. (UK, historical) A long, narrow hollow dug from the ground to conduct water.
  5. (UK, dialectal) Any navigable watercourse.
  6. (UK, dialectal) Any watercourse.
  7. (UK, dialectal) Any small body of water.
    Synonyms:
    puddle, pond, pool, lakelet, mere
  8. (UK) A body of rock (usually igneous) originally filling a fissure but now often rising above the older stratum as it is eroded away.
    • Their exact relationship to the host-rock is obscure but from their texture and observed metamorphic relationship they are thought to be intrusive dykes rather than intercalations of more basic lava.1968, Transactions of the Geological Society of South Africa, page 148
  9. (Australia, UK, slang) A place to urinate and defecate: an outhouse or lavatory.
    • In Cubbaroo's dim distant past
      They built a double dyke.
      Back to back in the yard it stood
      An architectural dream in wood.1977, Ian Slack-Smith, “The Passing of the Twin Seater”, in The Cubbaroo Tales
  10. (UK) An embankment formed by the spoil from the creation of a ditch.
  11. (UK, obsolete) Any hollow dug into the ground.
    Synonyms:
    den, cave, hole, pit
  12. (UK, historical) A long, narrow hollow dug from the ground to serve as a boundary marker.
Show 6 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. (UK) A wall, especially (obsolete outside heraldry) a masoned city or castle wall.
    • Inchbrakie gives for Arms, Or, a Dyke (or Wall) Feſsways, broke down in ſome places, and in Baſe a Roſe Gules, on a chief Sable three Eſcalops of the firſt. The Dyke (or Wall) here, is aſſumed not only to difference, but to perpetuate the valiant Action of Graham before mentioned; in throwing down...1722, Alexander Nisbet, A System of Heraldry Speculative and Practical, page 82
    • Wall, (sometimes called a dyke, fr. mur) : this is generally found in connection with castles or towns which are walled (muraillé). A wall of which kind should be masoned (fr. maçonné) and embattled (fr. crenellé), even though this be not specified. [...] Or, a dyke [or wall] fesswise [masoned...1894, Henry Gough, James Parker, A Glossary of Terms Used in Heraldry, page 608
  2. (UK, dialectal) Any fence or hedge.
  3. (UK, figuratively) Any impediment, barrier, or difficulty.
  4. (UK) A beaver's dam.
  5. (UK, dialectal) A jetty; a pier.
  6. (UK, dialectal) A fissure in a rock stratum filled with intrusive rock; a fault.

Verb

dyke (third-person singular simple present dykes, present participle dyking, simple past and past participle dyked)

  1. (UK, intransitive, transitive) To dig, particularly to create a ditch.
    • He finds out, soon enough for his weal and his bane, that he is stronger than Nature: and right tyrannously and irreverently he lords it over her, clearing, delving, dyking, building, without fear or shame.1866, C[harles] Kingsley, “Prelude. Of the Fens.”, in Hereward the Wake, “Last of the English.” […], volume I, London; Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 4
  2. (UK, transitive) To surround with a ditch, to entrench.
  3. (Scotland, UK, transitive) To surround with a low dirt or stone wall.
  4. (UK, intransitive, transitive) To raise a protective earthwork against a sea or river.
  5. (UK, transitive) To scour a watercourse.
  6. (UK, transitive) To steep [fibers] within a watercourse.

Noun (2)

dyke (plural dykes)

  1. (UK, derogatory, offensive, slang, usually, vulgar) A lesbian, particularly one with masculine or butch traits or behavior.
  2. (UK, broadly, derogatory, offensive, slang, usually) A non-heterosexual woman.
  3. (UK, derogatory, offensive, slang, usually, vulgar) A masculine woman.

Proper noun capitalized: Dyke

Dyke (countable and uncountable, plural Dykes)

  1. A village in Bourne parish, South Kesteven district, Lincolnshire, England, named after Car Dyke (OS grid ref TF1022).
  2. A small village in Moray council area, Scotland (OS grid ref NH9858).
  3. An unincorporated community in Greene County, Virginia, United States.
  4. A surname.

dyke meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

dyke in Hindi

barrier to prevent flooding
तटबंध taṭbandh, बंधा bandhā

dyke in Tamil

கடன்மதில், தைக்கு, முளைப்பாறை, கடல் அணை, நீர் நெறிச்சுவா

dyke in Marathi

डाइक

dyke in Urdu

بند, خندق, مینڈ
More languagesFewer languages
dyke in Bengali
ডাইক, ডায়েক, ডাইকে
dyke in Telugu
డైక్
dyke in Malayalam
ചിറ, ഉയരം കുറഞ്ഞ ഭിത്തി, പ്രതിബന്ധം, വെള്ളം ഒലിച്ചു പോവാനുള്ള ചാൽ
dyke in Kannada
ಏರಿ, ಒಡ್ಡು, ಅಡ್ಡಗೋಡೆ
dyke in Gujarati
ડાઇક
dyke in Odia
ଡାଇକ
dyke in Arabic
جَيْبْ نَافِذ jayb nāfiḏ
dyke in Vietnamese
đê

Examples of dyke in a sentence

  • Inchbrakie gives for Arms, Or, a Dyke (or Wall) Feſsways, broke down in ſome places, and in Baſe a Roſe Gules, on a chief Sable three Eſcalops of the firſt.1722, Alexander Nisbet, A System of Heraldry Speculative and Practical, page 82:
  • Wall, (sometimes called a dyke, fr. mur) : this is generally found in connection with castles or towns which are walled (muraillé).1894, Henry Gough, James Parker, A Glossary of Terms Used in Heraldry, page 608:

All 35 example sentences with dyke

Synonyms of dyke

10 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of dyke

Forms of dyke

Noun
pluraldykes
alternative USdike
Verb
third-person singular presentdykes
present participledyking
past participledyked
pastdyked
Proper noun
pluralDykes

Plural of dyke: dykes

Origin of dyke

A variant of dike, from Northern Middle English dik and dike (“ditch”), from Old Norse díki (“ditch”). Influenced by Middle Dutch dijc (“ditch; dam”) and Middle Low German dīk (“dam”). See also ditch. Ultimately from Proto-Germanic *dīkiją (“trench, ditch”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeygʷ- (“stick into, pierce; dig, stick a spade into”). The semantic evolution (also seen in several cognate words) was from "stick (a spade) into" to "dig" to "hole or other product of digging", "excavation", then the ridge of earth created when excavating a ditch, then to a ridge of earth intended to prevent flooding.

Uncertain. Attested since the 1940s (in Berrey and Van den Bark’s 1942 American Thesaurus of Slang) or 30s. Semantic development from dyke (“ditch”) has been proposed, and some sources from the 1890s are said to record dyke as slang for "vulva" and hedge of the dyke as slang for "pubic hair", but Green's Dictionary of Slang says this is not found in connection to lesbianism and Dictionary.com considers a connection unlikely. Bull dyke / bulldike is attested earlier, in reference to women since at least the 1920s (the 29 July 1892 Decatur Daily Review in Illinois mentions a woman who "won the affections of Harvey Neal, alias 'Bulldyke'", whose gender is unclear); compare dike (“noun: well-dressed man; verb: be well dressed”)), bulldyker, and bulldyking, which are all attested earlier than bare dyke, e.g. in Parke's 1906 Human Sexuality, in the speech of Philadelphians, and backcountry black Americans. Compare bulldagger, attested since around the same time and used especially by black women. Other linguists suggested that bull dyke(r) referred to strong black women who dug dikes, or derived from bull + dick, perhaps in reference to black men. It has also been suggested dyke is a...

* As an English surname, from the noun dyke. * As a Dutch surname, Americanized from Dijk (also compare Dyck).

Words formed from dyke

Phrases with dyke

2 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with dyke

33 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about dyke

What does dyke mean?
Dyke means an earthwork raised to prevent inundation of low land by the sea or flooding rivers.
What is dyke in Hindi?
Dyke in Hindi is तटबंध (taṭbandh), बंधा (bandhā). See Dyke meaning in Hindi.
How do you use dyke in a sentence?
Inchbrakie gives for Arms, Or, a Dyke (or Wall) Feſsways, broke down in ſome places, and in Baſe a Roſe Gules, on a chief Sable three Eſcalops of the firſt.
What part of speech is dyke?
Dyke can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce dyke?
Dyke is pronounced /ˈdaɪ̯k/.
What is the plural of dyke?
The plural of dyke is dykes.

Words near dyke in the dictionary

  1. Dyirbal
  2. Dyirbalic
  3. DYJHIW
  4. DYK
  5. Dykanka
  6. dyke
  7. dyke bottom
  8. dyke bottoms
  9. dyke out
  10. dyke phase
  11. dyke phases

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dyke (page history and authors); Dyke (page history and authors); dyke (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); dyke (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); dyke (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); dyke (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); dyke (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); dyke (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); dyke (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); dyke (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); dyke (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-dyke.wav.

Cite this entry: “dyke.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dyke. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.