Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Dike

Dike (dī), n. [OE. dic, dike, diche, ditch, AS. dīc dike, ditch; akin to D. dijk dike, G. deich, and prob. teich pond, Icel. dīki dike, ditch, Dan. dige; perh. akin to Gr. τεῖχος (for θεῖχος) wall, and even E. dough; or perh. to Gr. τῖφος pool, marsh. Cf. Ditch.] 1. A ditch; a channel for water made by digging.

Little channels or dikes cut to every bed. Ray.

2. An embankment to prevent inundations; a levee.

Dikes that the hands of the farmers had raised . . . Shut out the turbulent tides. Longfellow.

3. A wall of turf or stone. [Scot.]

4. (Geol.) A wall-like mass of mineral matter, usually an intrusion of igneous rocks, filling up rents or fissures in the original strata.

Dike, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Diked; p. pr. & vb. n. Diking.] [OE. diken, dichen, AS. dīcian to dike. See Dike.] 1. To surround or protect with a dike or dry bank; to secure with a bank.

2. To drain by a dike or ditch.

Dike, v. i. To work as a ditcher; to dig. [Obs.]

He would thresh and thereto dike and delve. Chaucer.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.