Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use ditch in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb

Ditch means a trench; a long, shallow indentation, as for irrigation or drainage. Example: “Digging ditches has long been considered one of the most demanding forms of manual labor.”

Examples of ditch by meaning

nounA trench; a long, shallow indentation, as for irrigation or drainage.

  • Digging ditches has long been considered one of the most demanding forms of manual labor.
  • The truck careered off the road into a ditch.
  • Ditches continued to be employed as the sole defensive measure at many sites even after wall building began to emerge.2011, Ralph D. Sawyer, Ancient Chinese Warfare, Basic Books, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 30

nounA raised bank of earth and the hedgerow on top.

  • But to the English, the ditch is the trench.2013 October 31, Frank McNally, “When Anglophone lines get crossed”, in The Irish Times, Dublin: Irish Times Trust, archived from the...

verbTo discard or abandon; to stop associating with (someone).

  • Once the sun came out we ditched our rain-gear and started a campfire.
  • Why did you ditch your last boyfriend? He was so nice to you.
  • Phil probably thinks I'm ditching him.1965 January 22, Lou Sullivan, Diary

verbTo deliberately crash-land an airplane on water.

  • When the second engine failed, the pilot was forced to ditch; their last location was just south of the Azores.

verbTo deliberately not attend classes; to play hookey.

  • The truant officer caught Louise ditching with her friends, and her parents were forced to pay a fine.
  • I had to ditch school!"2005 December 2, Dan Shive, El Goonish Shive (webcomic), Comic for Friday, Dec 2, 2005

verbTo dig ditches.

  • Enclosure led to fuller winter employment in hedging and ditching.

verbTo dig ditches around.

  • The soldiers ditched the tent to prevent flooding.

verbTo throw into a ditch.

  • The engine was ditched and turned on its side.

More sentences with ditch

  • They dug an eight-foot ditch along the side of the road.From the entry dig
  • The tennis ball bounced off the wall before coming to rest in the ditch.From the entry bounce
  • He stayed up all night in a last ditch effort to finish on time.From the entry last ditch
  • Thanks for driving out here and towing me out of the ditch. You're a superhero!From the entry superhero
  • Two cars spun out on the icy road and wound up in a ditch.From the entry spin out
  • It's no use trying to push the car out of the ditch; the axle is broken.From the entry it's no use
  • We ditched the original design and decided to start afresh.From the entry afresh
  • The truck raced southbound, then careened into the ditch.From the entry southbound
  • While inspecting a concrete drainage ditch on the property, they spotted skeletal remains.2026 August 17, Nicholas Muhoro, “Craig Frear Disappeared After Avoiding His Father in 2004, and No Trace of Him Has Ever Been Found”, in…. From the entry tape off
  • "You might want to ditch the Crocs to pass the vibe check," Siobhan whispered.2022, Claire Cook, Must Love Dogs: Lucky Enough, unnumbered page (published 4 March 2022). From the entry cheugy
  • He isn’t going to drive Americans to distraction or the country into a ditch.2020 August 17, Bret Stephens, “On Being a Biden Conservative”, in The New York Times. From the entry isn't
  • The motte was a mound made of earth and surrounded by a ditch.2013 September 13, Richard Huscroft, The Norman Conquest: A New Introduction, Routledge, →ISBN. From the entry motte
  • She continued along the bar ditch, sweat running down her back now.2013, Philipp Meyer, The Son, Simon & Schuster, published 2014, page 282. From the entry bar ditch
  • We think they should just move on because everyone has ditched Team Edward for Team PeeNiss.2012 October 11, Haley Boston, “The Rundown”, in The Daily Northwestern, Northwestern University, page 4. From the entry Peeniss
  • She's in a drainpipe--right there," I said, pointing toward the hole in the side of the ditch.2009, Mary Louise DeMott, Mary Rumford, The Adventure of Lisa and the Drainpipe Prayer, →ISBN, page 86. From the entry drainpipe
  • He had come to ditch his rufies and stash of filth in a bid for salvation.2008, Tibor Fischer, Good to be God, page 174. From the entry rufie
  • Perhaps the aerial photographs had been misrectified or the position of the ditches incorrectly surveyed.2006, Christopher Evans, Ian Hodder, A Woodland Archaeology: Neolithic Sites at Haddenham, page 244. From the entry misrectify
  • They selected eight trucks that had failed the leak test with an upper ditch leak.2005, Stefan H. Steiner, R. Jock MacKay, Statistical Engineering. From the entry leaker
  • A kind of Neolithic ceremonial monument comprising a rectangular enclosure defined by a bank with external ditches.2002, Timothy Darvill, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology, Oxford, Oxon: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 111, column 1. From the entry cursūs
  • "It's obvious that the ox is in the ditch big time," said Sen.2001 May 15, “Senators seek Postal Service overhaul”, in USA Today, retrieved 07 Nov 2008. From the entry ox is in the ditch
  • There are hedges and ditches ahead and you are on course for an almighty cropper.1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 1, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, section II, page 20. From the entry cropper
  • Johnson always announced the onset of catastrophe with the statement: "The ox is in the ditch!"1987 March 6, George Reedy, “Can the President Still Lead?”, in New York Times, retrieved 07 Nov 2008. From the entry ox is in the ditch
  • Ladies aslosh in dirty streamwater bubbling into ditches to drain the beating rain.1972, John Brandi, Y Aun Hay Mas, Santa Barbara, CA: Christopher’s Books, page 66. From the entry aslosh
  • It Is equipped with a 36 In bucket that depthens and clears the ditch of debris.1956, Street Engineering, volume 1, page 43. From the entry depthen
  • I learned the hard way that people who ditch cable TV still get the short end of the stick.2021 August 5, Shira Ovide, “YouTube Is Underwhelming”, in The New York Times, →ISSN. From the entry short end of the stick
  • Jock 1: hey headass. way to ditch us again.2018, Bianca Schramm, Suburban Utopia Unhinged, →ISBN, page 181. From the entry headass
  • “I just don't understand how you could ditch Rowan and get knocked up by Scott, like, right away.”2015, Jaime Loren, Waiting for April, Pan, →ISBN. From the entry knock up

Meaning of ditch

  1. noun A trench; a long, shallow indentation, as for irrigation or drainage.
  2. noun A raised bank of earth and the hedgerow on top.
  3. verb To discard or abandon; to stop associating with (someone).

Full definition of ditch

Questions about ditch in a sentence

How do you use ditch in a sentence?
Ditch is used as a noun and verb. For example: “Digging ditches has long been considered one of the most demanding forms of manual labor.”
What is a short sentence with ditch?
“I had to ditch school!"”
What does ditch mean?
Ditch means a trench; a long, shallow indentation, as for irrigation or drainage.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ditch (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use ditch in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/ditch. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.