ditch

CEFRC1

/dɪt͡ʃ/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A long narrow hole beside a road or in the ground.

  2. 02

    verb

    To get rid of or leave someone or something.

Examples

  • I am afraid to jump over the ditch.

  • Jeff and Mia are making a last ditch effort to avoid a divorce.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
4
Synonyms
5

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A raised bank of earth and the hedgerow on top.

  2. To discard or abandon.

  3. A trench; a long, shallow indentation, as for irrigation or drainage.

More examples

In context

  • Digging ditches has long been considered one of the most demanding forms of manual labor.

  • Once the sun came out we ditched our rain-gear and started a campfire.

  • The truck careered off the road into a ditch.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

He decided to blank the boring party and go home early.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

From Middle English dich, from Old English dīċ (“trench, moat”) from Proto-Germanic *dīkaz (compare Swedish dike, Icelandic díki, West Frisian dyk (“dam”), Dutch dijk (“dam”), German Teich (“pond”)), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeygʷ- (“to stick, set up”) (compare Latin fīgō (“to affix, fasten”), Lithuanian diegti (“to prick; plant”), dýgsti (“to geminate, grow”)). Doublet of dike.