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dyke

[dahyk]

Example Sentences Origin

noun, verb, dyked, dyk·ing.

dike¹.

Example Sentences

Perhaps the finger is still fully in the dyke as they work out how to make money from them.

Dictionary.com Unabridged

noun Slang: Disparaging and Offensive.

a female homosexual; lesbian.

Also, dike.

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

Related forms

dyke·y, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To dyke

Collins

World English Dictionary

dyke or dike¹ (daɪk)

—n
1.	an embankment constructed to prevent flooding, keep out the sea, etc
2.	a ditch or watercourse
3.	a bank made of earth excavated for and placed alongside a ditch
4.	(Scot) a wall, esp a dry-stone wall
5.	a barrier or obstruction
6.	a vertical or near-vertical wall-like body of igneous rock intruded into cracks in older rock
7.	informal (Austral), (NZ)
	a. a lavatory
	b. (as modifier): a dyke roll

—vb
8.	civil engineering an embankment or wall built to confine a river to a particular course
9.	(tr) to protect, enclose, or drain (land) with a dyke

[C13: modification of Old English dic ditch; compare Old Norse dīki ditch]

dike or dike¹

—n

—vb

[C13: modification of Old English dic ditch; compare Old Norse dīki ditch]

dyke or dike² (daɪk)

—n
	slang a lesbian

[C20: of unknown origin]

dike or dike²

—n

[C20: of unknown origin]

Dyke (dɑɪk)

—n
	Greg(ory). born 1947, British television executive; director-general of the BBC (2000--04)

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

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, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Slang Dictionary

dike definition

and dyke

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.
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"The office ... make[s] its incumbent a repair man behind a dyke. No sooner is one leak plugged than it is necessary to dash over and stop another that has broken out. There is no end to it."

-Herbert Hoover

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