What does ditch mean?

Definitions for ditch
dɪtʃditch

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word ditch.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. ditchnoun

    a long narrow excavation in the earth

  2. ditchverb

    any small natural waterway

  3. ditchverb

    forsake

    "ditch a lover"

  4. chuck, ditchverb

    throw away

    "Chuck these old notes"

  5. dump, ditchverb

    sever all ties with, usually unceremoniously or irresponsibly

    "The company dumped him after many years of service"; "She dumped her boyfriend when she fell in love with a rich man"

  6. ditchverb

    make an emergency landing on water

  7. ditchverb

    crash or crash-land

    "ditch a car"; "ditch a plane"

  8. trench, ditchverb

    cut a trench in, as for drainage

    "ditch the land to drain it"; "trench the fields"

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. DITCHnoun

    Etymology: dic, Saxon; diik, Erse.

    Some asked for manors, others for acres that lay convenient for them; that he would pull down his fences, and level his ditches. John Arbuthnot, History of John Bull.

    Sudden the ditches swell, the meadows swim. James Thomson.

    In the great plagues there were seen, in divers ditches and low grounds about London, many toads that had tails three inches long. Francis Bacon.

    The ditches, such as they were, were altogether dry, and easy to be passed over. Richard Knolles, History of the Turks.

    Poor Tom, when the foul fiend rages, eats cowdung for sallets, swallows the old rat, and the ditch-dog. William Shakespeare.

  2. To Ditchverb

    To make a ditch.

    Etymology: from the noun.

    I have employed my time, besides ditching, in finishing my travels. Jonathan Swift.

Wikipedia

  1. Ditch

    A ditch is a small to moderate divot created to channel water. A ditch can be used for drainage, to drain water from low-lying areas, alongside roadways or fields, or to channel water from a more distant source for plant irrigation. Ditches are commonly seen around farmland, especially in areas that have required drainage, such as The Fens in eastern England and much of the Netherlands. Roadside ditches may provide a hazard to motorists and cyclists, whose vehicles may crash into them and get damaged, flipped over, or stuck and cause major injury, especially in poor weather conditions and rural areas.

ChatGPT

  1. ditch

    A ditch is a long, narrow excavation made in the ground, usually dug for drainage, irrigation, or boundary purposes. It can also serve as a trench or channel to direct or carry away water.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Ditchnoun

    a trench made in the earth by digging, particularly a trench for draining wet land, for guarding or fencing inclosures, or for preventing an approach to a town or fortress. In the latter sense, it is called also a moat or a fosse

  2. Ditchnoun

    any long, narrow receptacle for water on the surface of the earth

  3. Ditchverb

    to dig a ditch or ditches in; to drain by a ditch or ditches; as, to ditch moist land

  4. Ditchverb

    to surround with a ditch

  5. Ditchverb

    to throw into a ditch; as, the engine was ditched and turned on its side

  6. Ditchverb

    to dig a ditch or ditches

  7. Etymology: [OE. dich, orig. the same word as dik. See Dike.]

Wikidata

  1. Ditch

    A ditch is usually defined as a small to moderate depression created to channel water. In Anglo-Saxon, the word dïc already existed and was pronounced "deek" in northern England and "deetch" in the south. The origins of the word lie in digging a trench and forming the upcast soil into a bank alongside it. This practice has meant that the name dïc was given to either the excavation or the bank, and evolved to both the words "dike"/"dyke" and "ditch". Thus Offa's Dyke is a combined structure and Car Dyke is a trench, though it once had raised banks as well. In the midlands and north of England, and in the United States, a dike is what a ditch is in the south, a property boundary marker or small drainage channel. Where it carries a stream, it may be called a running dike as in Rippingale Running Dike, which leads water from the catchwater drain, Car Dyke, to the South Forty Foot Drain in Lincolnshire. The Weir Dike is a soak dike in Bourne North Fen, near Twenty and alongside the River Glen. A ditch can be used for drainage, to drain water from low-lying areas, alongside roadways or fields, or to channel water from a more distant source for plant irrigation. A trench is a long narrow ditch. Ditches are commonly seen around farmland especially in areas that have required drainage, such as The Fens in eastern England and the Netherlands.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Ditch

    dich, n. a trench dug in the ground: any long narrow receptacle for water.—v.i. to make a ditch or ditches.—v.t. to dig a ditch in or around: to drain by ditches.—ns. Ditch′-dog (Shak.), a dead dog rotting in a ditch; Ditch′er, a ditch-maker. [A corr. of dike.]

Dictionary of Nautical Terms

  1. ditch

    In fortification the excavation in front of the parapet of any work, ranging in width from a few feet in field fortification to thirty or forty yards in permanent works, having its steep side next the rampart called the escarp: the opposite one is the counterscarp. Its principal use is to secure the escarp as long as possible. There are wet ditches and dry ones, the former being less in favour than the latter, since a dry ditch so much facilitates sorties, counter-approaches, and the like. That kind which may be made wet or dry at pleasure is most useful.

Military Dictionary and Gazetteer

  1. ditch

    In fortification, is an excavation made round the works, from which the earth required for the construction of the rampart and parapet is obtained. Ditches are of two kinds, wet and dry; but in modern fortification the dry ditch is considered preferable to the wet one. When the excavation is on the side farthest from the enemy it is called a trench.

Surnames Frequency by Census Records

  1. DITCH

    According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Ditch is ranked #22346 in terms of the most common surnames in America.

    The Ditch surname appeared 1,153 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 would have the surname Ditch.

    94.1% or 1,085 total occurrences were White.
    2.2% or 26 total occurrences were of Hispanic origin.
    1.5% or 18 total occurrences were Black.
    0.9% or 11 total occurrences were of two or more races.
    0.6% or 7 total occurrences were Asian.
    0.5% or 6 total occurrences were American Indian or Alaskan Native.

Usage in printed sourcesFrom: 

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Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of ditch in Chaldean Numerology is: 8

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of ditch in Pythagorean Numerology is: 8

Examples of ditch in a Sentence

  1. Thomas Jaeger:

    The CDU does not tend to ditch its leaders unless it realizes the Titanic is sinking.

  2. Brett VandenHeuvel:

    Those constitutional arguments, I think, are a last ditch effort, coal is dirty every step along the way, from the strip mines in Wyoming and Montana to the transport, and the burning of it in Asia.

  3. Donald Trump:

    I am running because I believe the world has not yet seen the true glory of what this nation can be. We have not reached that pinnacle, believe it or not, in fact, we can go very far. We're going to have to go far first. We have to get out of this ditch. And once we're out, you'll see things that nobody imagined for any country. It's called the United States of America. And it's an incredible place.

  4. Mustafa Balibay:

    I wanted to go to school, but we didn’t have the money, i’d be standing in a ditch and see the kids going to school. I thought it would be great to have money, to be able to have fun like them.

  5. Curtis Penix:

    When a large truck would come by, we had this little technique where we would lean (on their walking sticks) into the ditch and away from the road, just long enough for them to go by, and then we'd pop back out on the road.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

ditch#10000#15831#100000

Translations for ditch

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"ditch." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 6 Dec. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/ditch>.

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