What does "dyke" mean?
A long, narrow hollow dug from the ground to serve as a boundary marker.
Dyke
/daɪk/ name, noun, verb, slang
name, noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: A long, narrow hollow dug from the ground to serve as a boundary marker.
- Grammar: dyke is listed as name, noun, verb, slang.
- Nearest alternatives: dam, dike, embankment, amazon.
- Useful contrasts: breach, deteriorate, dune.
- Usage evidence: The dyke was repaired and the seawater was pumped out.
How to use "dyke"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "dyke" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "dyke" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "dyke" as the right word for your sentence.
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Compare nearby meanings
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- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "dyke" is acting as name, noun, verb, slang in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
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3. Confirm with context
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Final meaning check
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When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A long, narrow hollow dug from the ground to serve as a boundary marker. UK, historical
- 2 A lesbian, particularly one with masculine or butch traits or behavior. UK, derogatory, offensive, slang, usually
- 3 a barrier constructed to contain the flow of water or to keep out the sea wordnet
- 4 A long, narrow hollow dug from the ground to conduct water. UK
- 5 A non-heterosexual woman. UK, broadly, derogatory, offensive, slang, usually
Show 17 more definitions
- 6 (slang) offensive term for a lesbian who is noticeably masculine wordnet
- 7 Any navigable watercourse. UK, dialectal
- 8 Any watercourse. UK, dialectal
- 9 Any small body of water. UK, dialectal
- 10 Any hollow dug into the ground. UK, obsolete
- 11 A place to urinate and defecate: an outhouse or lavatory. Australia, UK, slang
"In Cubbaroo's dim distant past They built a double dyke. Back to back in the yard it stood An architectural dream in wood."
- 12 An embankment formed by the spoil from the creation of a ditch. UK
- 13 A wall, especially (obsolete outside heraldry) a masoned city or castle wall. UK
"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, [...]"
- 14 A low embankment or stone wall serving as an enclosure and boundary marker. Scotland, UK
"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'."
- 15 Any fence or hedge. UK, dialectal
- 16 An earthwork raised to prevent inundation of low land by the sea or flooding rivers. UK
"The king of Texcuco advised the building of a great dike, so thick and strong as to keep out the water."
- 17 Any impediment, barrier, or difficulty. UK, figuratively
- 18 A beaver's dam. UK
- 19 A jetty; a pier. UK, dialectal
- 20 A raised causeway. UK
- 21 A fissure in a rock stratum filled with intrusive rock; a fault. UK, dialectal
- 22 A body of rock (usually igneous) originally filling a fissure but now often rising above the older stratum as it is eroded away. UK
"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."
Verb
- 1 To dig, particularly to create a ditch. UK, intransitive, transitive
"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 enclose with a dike wordnet
- 3 To surround with a ditch, to entrench. UK, transitive
- 4 To surround with a low dirt or stone wall. Scotland, UK, transitive
- 5 To raise a protective earthwork against a sea or river. UK, intransitive, transitive
Show 2 more definitions
- 6 To scour a watercourse. UK, transitive
- 7 To steep [fibers] within a watercourse. UK, transitive
Proper Noun
- 1 A village in Bourne parish, South Kesteven district, Lincolnshire, England, named after Car Dyke (OS grid ref TF1022). countable, uncountable
- 2 A small village in Moray council area, Scotland (OS grid ref NH9858). countable, uncountable
- 3 An unincorporated community in Greene County, Virginia, United States. countable, uncountable
- 4 A surname. countable, uncountable
Antonyms
Example
"The dyke was repaired and the seawater was pumped out."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "dyke"?
Common synonyms include: dam, dike, embankment, amazon, androgyne, auntie.
How do you use "dyke" in a sentence?
The dyke was repaired and the seawater was pumped out.
How do you pronounce "dyke"?
Pronounced /daɪk/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
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.
Etymology 2
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 shortening of morphodyke, from morphodite, from hermaphrodite, but the derivation may go in the other direction instead, with morphodyke being a blend of morphodite with the already-extant word dyke.
Etymology 3
* As an English surname, from the noun dyke. * As a Dutch surname, Americanized from Dijk (also compare Dyck).