Showing results for "dyke"

• a variation of dike.

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• dyke
  dyke

  noun

  dike.
• Dyke
  Dyke

  noun

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

dyke

¹ American  

[dahyk] / daɪk /

noun

dyked, dyking

1. dike.

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dyke ² American  

[dahyk] / daɪk /

Also dike

noun

Slang: Disparaging and Offensive.

1. a contemptuous term used to refer to a lesbian.

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dyke ¹ British  

/ daɪk /

noun

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. 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

   1. a lavatory

   2. ( as modifier )

      a dyke roll

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verb

1. civil engineering an embankment or wall built to confine a river to a particular course

2. (tr) to protect, enclose, or drain (land) with a dyke

Dyke ² British  

/ dɑɪk /

noun

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

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dyke ³ British  

/ daɪk /

noun

1. slang a lesbian

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Sensitivity

The terms dyke and bull dyke are used with disparaging intent and are perceived as insulting. However, they have been adopted as positive terms of self-reference by young or radical lesbians and in the academic community. In the mainstream gay community, lesbian and gay remain the terms of choice.

Other Word Forms

• dykey
  adjective

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Etymology

Origin of dyke

First recorded in 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 preexisting dyke; other hypothesized connections, such as with diked out or dike “ditch,” are dubious on semantic grounds

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

dyke Dyke dyked dyking

The prospect now is that not just his business, but his home on the other side of the dyke that protects the village from the water, could be lost.

From BBC ● Apr. 12, 2026

The festivities kick off with a drag block party, daytime music and arts fest and wrap with a parade and dyke day in the park.

From Seattle Times ● May 31, 2024

Construction of the protective dyke around the power station was awaiting formal approval from the government.

From Reuters ● Nov. 14, 2023

I was the little junior dyke at Lesbian Tide with Jeanne Córdova, who had a huge influence on me.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2023

The solution is to build a dyke with floodgates—sliding panels that can be closed to seal off the opening—across the mouth of the river.

From "Meltdown" by Deirdre Langeland

Van Dyke has pleaded not guilty and is challenging the government’s claim that antifraud laws written for financial derivatives apply to prediction markets.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026

In 2013, shortly after taking over as chairman of the Football Association, Greg Dyke was fiercely critical of the structure of English football.

From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026

By then, Moore’s starring role in “The Dick Van Dyke Show” was already leading to greater things, including founding MTM Enterprises with then-husband Grant Tinker.

From Salon ● Jun. 20, 2026

We’d come home, relax and watch TV, probably old episodes of “The Dick Van Dyke Show.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2026

Mr. Van Dyke came back out on the porch after talking on the telephone, and a rumor flashed through the crowd: One in the rescue team had been hurt, but they had broken through.

From "October Sky" by Homer Hickam

By the 1950s, all but 8% of the bay’s 77,000 hectares of marshes had been dyked off or filled for human uses such as agriculture, rubbish dumps, sewage-treatment plants, navy bases, airports and salt ponds.

From Nature ● Oct. 8, 2018

Bit by bit it will get dyked and breakwatered.

From Memories and Studies by Henry James

When the Loyalists arrived in 1783 the dyked marsh lands produced about 400 tons of hay, but it was said that “if tilled and ditched they would produce much more.”

From Glimpses of the Past History of the River St. John, A.D. 1604-1784 by W. O. (William Odber) Raymond

This is the finest part of the Province for stock; from the extensive tracts of salt marsh which lie in this county, many thousand acres of which are dyked and produce abundant crops.

From History of New Brunswick by Peter Fisher

She had been buried in the shore field, where a square space had been dyked off in the centre for a burial lot because the church was then so far away.

From Lucy Maud Montgomery Short Stories, 1909 to 1922 by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

So his army laid down its guns, and took up the spade, and went largely into the ditching and dyking business.

From Siege of Washington, D.C., written expressly for little people by F. Colburn (Francis Colburn) Adams

A description of their methods of dyking and constructing aboideaux, written in 1710, is interesting to those who are doing the same work now.

From The Chignecto Isthmus and its first settlers by Howard Trueman

Cairo has since been built into a considerable town by dyking out the rivers, and was an important naval and military point during the Civil War....

From With the World's Great Travellers, Volume 1 by Various

By dyking and pumping, certain wise men had changed ten acres, of sand and heath, into pasture and land for plowing.

From Dutch Fairy Tales for Young Folks by William Elliot Griffis

Still, you see, he's rash; we have an example in his dyking plan, and I would not like my money squandered.

From Partners of the Out-Trail by Harold Bindloss

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