dyke

noun

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.”

   “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.”

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'.'”

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.
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.”

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.”

10. (UK)An embankment formed by the spoil from the creation of a ditch.
11. (UK, obsolete)Any hollow dug into the ground.
12. (UK, historical)A long, narrow hollow dug from the ground to serve as a boundary marker.
13. (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 the Wall and Ditch, which the Romans made betwixt Forth and Clyde, to keep out the Scots, [...]”

    “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 proper] broken down in some places gules; [...] —Graham, Inchbrakie, Scotland [similar arms borne by Græme of Stapleton].”

    “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 was first developed, it was simply described as 'the sheep dyke'.'”

14. (UK, dialectal)Any fence or hedge.
15. (UK, figuratively)Any impediment, barrier, or difficulty.
16. (UK)A beaver's dam.
17. (UK, dialectal)A jetty; a pier.
18. (UK, dialectal)A fissure in a rock stratum filled with intrusive rock; a fault.
19. (UK, derogatory, offensive, slang, usually)A lesbian, particularly one with masculine or butch traits or behavior.
20. (UK, broadly, derogatory, offensive, slang, usually)A non-heterosexual woman.
21. (UK, derogatory, offensive, slang, usually)A masculine woman.

verb

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.”

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.

name

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