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dike - What does it mean?

Definition of 'dike'

English

Alternative forms

* dyke

Noun

(en-noun)
  • (British) Archaic spelling of all (British) meanings of dyke.
  • A barrier of stone or earth used to hold back water and prevent flooding.
  • * 1891 :
  • ** The king of Texcuco advised the building of a great dike , so thick and strong as to keep out the water.
  • (pejorative) A lesbian, especially a butch lesbian.
  • (geology) A body of once molten igneous rock that was injected into older rocks in a manner that crosses bedding planes.
  • Synonyms

    * (barrier of stone or earth) bank, embankment, dam, levee, breakwater, floodwall, seawall * ditch

    Antonyms

    * dune

    See also

    * dough * duck * duct * thick

    Verb

    (dik)
  • To surround or protect with a dike or dry bank; to secure with a bank.
  • *{{quote-journal|2001|date=November 16|Karen F. Schmidt|ECOLOGY: A True-Blue Vision for the Danube|Science citation
  • |passage=Next News Focus ECOLOGY: A True-Blue Vision for the Danube Karen F. Schmidt * Romanian scientists are at the forefront of a European effort to balance the protection and exploitation of vast, diverse wetlands B UCHAREST-- In 1983, dictator Nicolae Ceausescu decreed that the Romanian Danube delta, one of Europe's largest wetlands, be diked for growing rice and maize. }}
  • * {{quote-news|year=1996|date=September 27|author=Michael Miner|title=WVON Won't Take the Bait/Meigs and the Dailies: The Long View|work=Chicago Reader citation
  • |passage=Lakeside water-filtration plants, an 11,000-acre diked airport east of 55th Street, slash-and-bulldoze highway projects through Jackson and Lincoln parks--these and many another grandiose project leapt from the sketchbooks of city planners. }}
  • To drain by a dike or ditch.
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