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• ditch
  ditch

  noun

  a long, narrow excavation made in the ground by digging, as for draining or irrigating land; trench.
• Ditch
  Ditch

  noun

  an informal name for the Tasman Sea

ditch

American  

[dich] / dɪtʃ /

noun

• ditches
  plural

1. a long, narrow excavation made in the ground by digging, as for draining or irrigating land; trench.

2. any open passage or trench, as a natural channel or waterway.

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verb (used with object)

• ditches,
  present (3rd person singular)
• ditched,
  past participle,  past
• ditching
  present participle

1. to dig a ditch or ditches in or around.

2. to derail (a train) or drive or force (an automobile, bus, etc.) into a ditch.

3. to crash-land on water and abandon (an airplane).

4. Slang.

   1. to get rid of.

      I ditched that old hat of yours.

   2. to escape from.

      He ditched the cops by driving down an alley.

   3. to absent oneself from (school or a class) without permission or an acceptable reason.

verb (used without object)

• ditches,
  present (3rd person singular)
• ditched,
  past participle,  past
• ditching
  present participle

1. to dig a ditch.

2. (of an aircraft or its crew) to crash-land in water and abandon the sinking aircraft.

3. Slang. to be truant; play hooky.

ditch ¹ British  

/ dɪtʃ /

noun

1. a narrow channel dug in the earth, usually used for drainage, irrigation, or as a boundary marker

2. any small, natural waterway

3. a bank made of earth excavated from and placed alongside a drain or stream

4. informal either of the gutters at the side of a tenpin bowling lane

5. a last resort or place of last defence

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verb

1. to make a ditch or ditches in (a piece of ground)

2. (intr) to edge with a ditch

3. informal to crash or be crashed, esp deliberately, as to avoid more unpleasant circumstances

   he had to ditch the car

4. slang (tr) to abandon or discard

   to ditch a girlfriend

5. informal to land (an aircraft) on water in an emergency

6. slang (tr) to evade

   to ditch the police

Ditch ² British  

/ dɪtʃ /

noun

1. an informal name for the Tasman Sea

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ditch Idioms  

1. see last-ditch effort.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• ditcher
  noun
• ditchless
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• ditches
  plural

Participles

• ditching
  present
• ditched
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• ditch
  simple
• ditches
  simple
• have ditched
  perfect
• has ditched
  perfect
• am ditching
  progressive
• are ditching
  progressive
• is ditching
  progressive
• have been ditching
  perfect progressive
• has been ditching
  perfect progressive

Past

• ditched
  simple
• had ditched
  perfect
• was ditching
  progressive
• were ditching
  progressive
• had been ditching
  perfect progressive

Future

• will ditch
  simple
• will have ditched
  perfect
• will be ditching
  progressive
• will have been ditching
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of ditch

before 900; 1940–45 ditch for def. 5, 1885–90 ditch for def. 6, 1955–60 ditch for def. 9; Middle English dich, Old English dīc; cognate with German Teich. See dike ¹

Explanation

A ditch is a long trench or pit dug into the ground. If your lawns are always soggy, build a drainage ditch for the excess water to flow into. A ditch can be a man-made trench, usually long and narrow, dug into the earth, or a natural ditch made by flowing water. Originally used for farming, we now use ditch for any pit in the ground. Ditch can also be a verb meaning to toss something or forsake it. You can ditch a plan that's going wrong, or a boyfriend who is misbehaving. If you make an emergency crash landing, you ditch your plane.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ditch Ditch ditches ditched ditching

Texas Stock Exchange’s audacious plan to challenge Wall Street’s financial dominance hinges on convincing companies to ditch their New York listings.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026

Even if they want to ditch the industrial food products, healthier alternatives cost more -- and in poverty stricken areas of East Tennessee, that's a non-starter.

From Barron's ● Sep. 3, 2026

UK cyber chiefs say it's time to ditch passwords for passkeys - what are they?

From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2026

When complex medical diagnoses emerge, Medicare Advantage subscribers often ditch their plans and switch to traditional Medicare, but making that change can be difficult and expensive.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 2, 2026

During a snowstorm, we were driving through the mountains with the girls when Jimmie slid off the road and into the drainage ditch.

From "Reaching for the Moon" by Katherine Johnson

Appeared in the August 17, 2026, print edition as 'Warsh Is Wise to Ditch the Dots'.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026

Ditch the crowds: Look out for other American milestone celebrations this summer.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 27, 2026

David Ditch, a senior analyst at the Economic Policy Innovation Center, a conservative think tank, says Doge's work is needed.

From BBC ● Feb. 13, 2025

Her advice: Ditch the earbuds and use the hike as an extension of the mindful movement you just completed by letting yourself take in and appreciate the natural surroundings.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 10, 2025

Couple friends are getting dinner at Applebee’s at 86th and Ditch on Friday.

From "Turtles All the Way Down" by John Green

The tribes also have worked together after rains to orchestrate rescue missions for chi that are trapped in puddles, offshoots and agricultural ditches.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026

Launching in the UK and Ireland on 22 June, the Playground ditches controllers for body movements, tracking players using AI and a built-in camera.

From BBC ● Jun. 20, 2026

Excavations uncovered field systems, ditches and enclosures, including horse paddocks, as well as the remains of farm buildings and storage structures.

From BBC ● Jun. 9, 2026

Frequently, the story ditches consistency for a cheap gag.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 29, 2026

The ditches were thronged with elderberry and dark with patches of mint down low.

From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck

But over the past couple of years, every other person seems to have ditched their headphones and is brandishing their phones like radios set to a nightmare station.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026

At about 20:50 GMT the aircraft ditched - a deliberate emergency landing on water, approximately 25 nautical miles south of Lyme Regis, Dorset.

From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026

The suspect ditched his bike in the Broadway-Manchester neighborhood, northeast of where Interstates 105 and 110 intersect, and ran off.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026

The British digital bank was set up in 2015 as a "new kind of bank" that ditched physical bank branches for a mobile-first app.

From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026

As a pigtailed child, Joella had once ditched school to compete in, and win, a horse race against legendary Arapahoe riders.

From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand

Leyshon was recovered about two hours after the ditching and was pronounced dead in hospital, while the other two crew members suffered minor injuries.

From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026

Crocs attacked an oversupply of aging inventory by ditching discounts and making products less available.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026

Investors have been ditching AI-linked stocks due to worries about surging memory-chip prices.

From Barron's ● Jun. 26, 2026

But ditching the physical disc strikes a blow to secondhand markets like GameStop, allowing Take-Two to capture more profits, Griffin added.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 25, 2026

Twig was in Paris that week, and Mikayla had been ditching me during lunch, so I was eating alone.

From "The Science of Breakable Things" by Tae Keller

Related Words

• abandon
• discard
• dispose of
• dump
• forsake
• jettison
• junk
• scrap