Dike (?), n. [OE. dic, dike, diche, ditch, AS. dc dike, ditch; akin to D. dijk dike, G. deich, and prob. teich pond, Icel. dki dike, ditch, Dan. dige; perh. akin to Gr. (for ) wall, and even E. dough; or perh. to Gr. pool, marsh. Cf. 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.

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

 

© Webster 1913.


Dike, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Diked (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Diking.] [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.

 

© Webster 1913.


Dike, v. i.

To work as a ditcher; to dig.

[Obs.]

He would thresh and thereto dike and delve. Chaucer.

 

© Webster 1913.