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dike

 - 11 dictionary results

dike

1  [dahyk] noun, verb, diked, dik⋅ing.
Use dike in a Sentence
–noun
1. an embankment for controlling or holding back the waters of the sea or a river: They built a temporary dike of sandbags to keep the river from flooding the town.
2. a ditch.
3. a bank of earth formed of material being excavated.
4. a causeway.
5. British Dialect. a low wall or fence, esp. of earth or stone, for dividing or enclosing land.
6. an obstacle; barrier.
7. Geology.
a. a long, narrow, cross-cutting mass of igneous rock intruded into a fissure in older rock.
b. a similar mass of rock composed of other kinds of material, as sandstone.
8. Chiefly Australian Slang. a urinal.
–verb (used with object)
9. to furnish or drain with a dike.
10. to enclose, restrain, or protect by a dike: to dike a tract of land.
Also, dyke.

Origin:
bef. 900; ME dik(e), OE dīc < ON dīki; akin to ditch

Related forms:
diker, noun

dike

2  [dahyk]
–noun Slang: Often Disparaging and Offensive.
dyke 2 .
Related forms:
dikey, adjective

dyke

2  [dahyk]
–noun Slang: Disparaging and Offensive.
a female homosexual; lesbian.
Also, dike.

Origin:
1940–45; earlier in form bulldike (with a var. bulldagger); of obscure orig.; claimed to be a shortening of morphodyke (var. of morphodite, a reshaping of hermaphrodite ), though morphodyke is more likely a b. morphodite and a pre-existing dyke; other hypothesized connections, such as with diked out or dike “ditch,” are dubious on semantic grounds

Related forms:
dykey, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To dike
dike 1 also dyke   (dīk)   
n.  

    1. An embankment of earth and rock built to prevent floods.

    2. Chiefly British A low wall, often of sod, dividing or enclosing lands.

  2. A barrier blocking a passage, especially for protection.

  3. A raised causeway.

  4. A ditch; a channel.

  5. Geology A long mass of igneous rock that cuts across the structure of adjacent rock.

tr.v.   diked also dyked, dik·ing also dyk·ing, dikes also dykes

  1. To protect, enclose, or provide with a dike.

  2. To drain with dikes or ditches.


[Middle English, from Old English dīc, trench; see dhīgw- in Indo-European roots, and from Old Norse dīki, ditch.]
dik'er n.
dike 2   (dīk)   
n.   Offensive Slang
Variant of dyke2.
dyke 2   (dīk)   
n.   Offensive Slang
Used as a disparaging term for a lesbian.

[Origin unknown.]
dyke'y adj.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Slang Dictionary
dike

and dyke
  1. n.
    a lesbian; a bulldiker.(Rude and derogatory.) : Who's the dike in the cowboy boots?
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source
Word Origin & History

dike 
O.E. dic "trench, ditch," from P.Gmc. *dik- (cf. O.N. diki, Du. dijk, Ger. Deich), from PIE base *dheigw- "to pierce, fasten" (cf. Skt. dehi- "wall," O.Pers. dida "wall, stronghold, fortress," Pers. diz). At first "an excavation," later (1487) applied to the resulting earth mound; a sense development paralleled by cognate forms in many other languages. This is the northern variant of the word, which in the south of England yielded ditch.

dyke 
1931, Amer.Eng., probably shortening of morphadike, dialectal garbling of hermaphrodite, but bulldyker "engage in lesbian activities" is attested from 1921, and a source from 1896 lists dyke as slang for "the vulva."
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Science Dictionary
dike   (dīk)  Pronunciation Key 

  1. A body of igneous rock that cuts across the structure of adjoining rock, usually as a result of the intrusion of magma. Dikes are often of a different composition from the rock they cut across. They are usually on the order of centimeters to meters across and up to tens of kilometers long. See illustration at batholith.

  2. An embankment of earth and rock built to prevent floods or to hold irrigation water in for agricultural purposes.


The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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Computing Dictionary

dike
To remove or disable a portion of something, as a wire from a computer or a subroutine from a program. A standard slogan is "When in doubt, dike it out". (The implication is that it is usually more effective to attack software problems by reducing complexity than by increasing it.) The word "dikes" is widely used among mechanics and engineers to mean "diagonal cutters", especially the heavy-duty metal-cutting version, but may also refer to a kind of wire-cutters used by electronics technicians. To "dike something out" means to use such cutters to remove something. Indeed, the TMRC Dictionary defined dike as "to attack with dikes". Among hackers this term has been metaphorically extended to informational objects such as sections of code.
[The Jargon File]

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2007 Denis Howe
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