▪ I. ditch, n.1
(dɪtʃ)
Forms: 1–3 d{iacu}c, 2–7 dich(e, 4–6 dych(e (4 dicche), 5–7 ditche (6 deche, dytch), 6– ditch.
[OE. d{iacu}c, which has also given dike n.1, q.v.
The analogy of other words, e.g. ME. like, liche, (dead) body, like, liche, adj., -rik, -riche, suffix in kinrik, kyneriche, etc., ik, ich, I, pik, piche, pitch, stike, stiche, stitch, leads us to expect dike as the northern, dich as the southern repr. of OE. d{iacu}c. The ME. evidence favours this; but in modern use, both forms occur in nearly all parts of the country, with various differentiation of meaning. Generally, ditch is a hollow channel or deep furrow, wet or dry, but in some parts (see sense 4) it is an embankment or raised fence; usually dike or dyke is a bank or wall, but in many parts it is a wide and deep channel for running water. The existence of dick or deek in this sense in Kent, Sussex, and other southern counties, is remarkable. The use of dike, dyke, for a sea-wall or embankment in the eastern counties, may possibly have been introduced from Holland: cf. the title dike-grave.]
1. a. An excavation narrow in proportion to its length; a long and narrow hollow dug in the ground; the trench or fosse of a fortification, etc.
| [847–c 1205 see dike n.1 1.] 1045 Charter Eadweard in Cod. Dipl. IV. 98 (written after 1200) Of ðam paðe on ðane greatan þorn ðe stynt wið Grimes dic; andlang ðære diche on ðone haran þorn. a 1200 Moral Ode 41 Þes riche Men weneð bon siker þurh walle and þurh diche. c 1205 Lay. 15900 Þa dich wes idoluen seoue vet depre. c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 55/70 He wende and hudde him in a Dich. c 1340 Cursor M. 9899 (Trin.) A deep diche [v.rr. dik, dick] is þere aboute. c 1430 Lydg. Bochas iii. 94 a, Cincinnatus..Made dyches to geat his Sustenaunce. 1494 Fabyan Chron. vi. cli. 138 He also..made a famous dyke atwene Walys and the vtter bondys of Mercia..the which, to this day, is namyd Offedych. 1553 Eden Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.) 13 They moued neare vnto the trenche or ditche of the castell. 1606 Shakes. Ant. & Cl. v. ii. 57 Rather a ditch in Egypt Be gentle graue vnto me. 1665 Boyle Occas. Refl. v. vii. (1845) 324 One must search the Ditches amongst Briars and Weeds..to find Medicinable Herbs. 1776 Gibbon Decl. & F. (1846) I. i. 17 The rampart..was..defended by a ditch of twelve feet in depth as well as in breadth. 1829 P. Hawker Diary (1893) II. 3 The most impregnable fences I ever met with, and blind ditches, six feet deep, to half the fields. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 136/2 The ditch of a permanent work provides the earth to form the rampart. |
b. Salt-making (
Cheshire). See
quot.| 1884 Cheshire Gloss., Ditch, salt-making term. The space in the ‘hot-house’ between two raised flues for putting lump salt in to complete its stoving and drying. |
c. Calcutta, so called in allusion to the Mahratta Ditch (see
Mahratta 3).
slang.| 1886 Yule & Burnell Hobson-Jobson 246/2 Ditch; and Ditcher, disparaging sobriquets for Calcutta and its European citizens. |
d. The trench or piece of ground immediately surrounding a bowling green.
| 1861 Chambers's Encycl. II. 289/1 If a bowl..strikes the jack, and then rolls into the ditch, it reckons as if on the green. 1886 T. Taylor Rules of Bowling 16 When the jack is run into the ditch by a bowl in the regular course of the game. 1902 Encycl. Brit. XXVI. 328/1 There is no excuse for short play on the part of the first players; their bowls would be far better in the ditch. 1962 Bowls (Know the Game) 3/2 The green must be level and surrounded by a ditch and bank. |
2. a. esp. Such a hollow dug out to receive or conduct water,
esp. to carry off the surface drainage of a road, a field, etc.
On the borders of fields, etc., often serving the double purpose of carrying off surface water, and of forming an effective protective fence. The latter purpose is in marshy ground often served by a ditch alone, but elsewhere usually in combination with a hedge.
| 1297 R. Glouc. (1724) 409 Alle þe wateres..aboute þe toun þere, And dyches and puttes, rede of blode were. c 1305 St. Kenelm 364 in E.E.P. (1862) 57 Þis bodi..in a foul dich me drouȝ In þe fouleste þat þere was neȝ. 13.. E.E. Allit. P. A. 606 He lauez hys gyftez as water of dyche. 1484 Caxton Fables of æsop ii. ii, There were frogges whiche were in dyches and pondes at theyre lyberte. 1582 N. Lichefield tr. Castanheda's Conq. E. Ind. lix. 122 b, There was cast about the same a Caue or Ditch, which alwaies was full of water. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 687 All these Cocytus bounds..With muddy Ditches, and with deadly Weeds. 1756 C. Lucas Ess. Waters II. 140 The overflowings of this spring fill all the..ditches with a light, pale ochre. 1845 James A. Neil vii, Ditches enough to drain the sea. 1881 Raymond Mining Gloss., Ditch, an artifical watercourse, flume, or canal, to convey water for mining. A flume is usually of wood; a ditch, of earth. |
b. Extended rhetorically to any watercourse or channel, including those of natural formation.
| 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie iii. xxiii. (Arb.) 277 Thy maister durst not haue sent me These words, were it not for that broad ditch [i.e. the English Channel] betweene him and me. 1608 E. Grimstone Hist. France (1611) 364 That great ditch of the sea is sufficient to distinguish these two Monarchies. 1660 F. Brooke tr. LeBlanc's Trav. 251 This branch..is much about the rate of the ditch or channel of Pisa at Livorne. 1842 Dickens Amer. Notes ii. iv, The Mississippi..an enormous ditch sometimes two or three miles wide, running liquid mud. 1874 Kingsley Lett. (1878) II. 432 Across the rude rushing muddy ditch, the Mississippi. |
c. (
a)
Naval slang. The sea; (
b)
R.A.F. slang. The English Channel or the North Sea.
| 1922 Man. Seamanship I. i. 33 A smart seaman would not talk officially of the sea by a favourite slang expression ‘the ditch’. 1925 Fraser & Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 78 ‘He fell into the ditch’, i.e. overboard. 1945 Partridge Dict. R.A.F. Slang 23 The Ditch, the sea; especially the English Channel. (Adopted from nautical slang.) |
† 3. Any hollow dug in the ground; a hole, pit, cave, den.
Obs.| c 1275 Passion of our Lord 80 in O.E. Misc. 39 Hit is iwrite þat myn hus is bede hus icleped. And ye þeouene dich hit habbeþ y-maked. c 1320 Seuyn Sag. (W.) 1279 The wise man dede make a dich, Ful of lim and of pich, That yif he agen wald come, That the traitour sscholde bi nome. 1340 Ayenb. 57 Þe tauerne is a dich to þieues. c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. i. 76 Make a dyche, and yf the moolde abounde And wol not in agayn, it is fecounde. 14.. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 584 Fovea, a dyche. |
4. A bank or mound formed by the earth thrown up in digging a hollow or trench; an embankment;
= dike n.1 5, 6. Now only
dial.| 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 1301 [They] brake downe those inclosures, and cast downe ditches. 1590 R. Payne Descr. Irel. (1841) 9 Let the slope side of your ditch be towardes your warraine. 1635 N. Riding Rec. IV. 36 Stopping the highway by casting upp a great ditche. 1666 in Picton L'pool Munic. Rec. (1883) I. 315 Roger Bushell shall throwe down that new ditch hee hath made. 1880 Antrim & Down Gloss., Ditch, a fence, generally of earth. 1892 E. J. Hardy in Sund. Mag. Sept. 600 It is not true, then, that [in Malta] the mosquitoes are so large that they sit on ditches and bark at you. |
5. Phrases.
to fall or lead into a ditch;
to die in a ditch.
the last ditch, the last line of defence;
to die in the last ditch, to die, resisting to the last (see
die v.
1 3); so
to be driven to the last ditch,
i.e. to the utmost extremities.
to lay (put) under the ditch (
U.S.), to intersect with ditches so as to irrigate.
| c 1380 Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. II. 25 Foolis and sinful men lede oþer foolis into þe diche. 1382 ― Matt. xv. 14 Ȝif a blynd man ȝeue ledynge to a blynd man, bothe fallen doun in to the diche. c 1440 Gesta Rom. lxx. 326 (Harl. MS.) The stiward is fallyn in his owne diche, by þe right wisdom of god. 1683 Burnet tr. More's Utopia (1684) 39, I..shew him the Ditch into which he will fall, if he is not aware of it. a 1715 To die in the last ditch [see die v.1 3]. 1798 in Proc. Amer. Antiq. Soc. IX. iii. 324 In War We [Citizens of Westmoreland, Virginia] know but one additional Obligation, To die in the Last Ditch or uphold our Nation. 1821 T. Jefferson Writ. (1892) I. 122 A government..driven to the last ditch by the universal call for liberty. 1874 Blackie Self-Cult. 48 He who abstains from it [whisky]..will never die in a ditch. 1890 Spectator 29 Mar. 426/1 Although the discussion will be harrassing, the resistance will not be to the last ditch. 1892 Harper's Mag. June 93/1 Three-fifths of it [the soil] can be laid under the ditch. Ibid. 95/1 This scheme looks forward to putting 30,000 acres under the ditch. |
6. attrib. and
Comb. a. simple
attrib., ‘Of, belonging to, found in, working at, a ditch’, as
ditch-back,
ditch-bank,
ditch-bottom,
ditch-dog,
ditch-labourer,
ditch-side,
ditch-work,
ditch-world.
b. ‘Of the quality of a ditch, dirty, vile, worthless’, as
ditch constable.
c. objective, as
ditch-digger.
d. Special combs.:
ditch-delivered pa. pple., brought forth in a ditch;
ditch-drawn, drawn from a ditch;
ditch measure, see
quot. 1670, and
perch. Also in various names of plants growing in ditches, as
ditch-bur,
Xanthium strumarium;
ditch-down, the reed-mace,
Typha latifolia;
ditch-fern,
Osmunda regalis;
ditch-grass (
U.S.),
Ruppia maritima;
ditch-reed,
Phragmites communis. Also
ditch-water.
| 1869 Lonsdale Gloss., *Ditch-back, a fence. |
| 1776 Withering Brit. Plants (1796) III. 527 White Dead Nettle. On rubbish, cornfields, and *ditch-banks. |
| 1548 Turner Names of Herbes 81 Xanthium is called in english *Dichebur or Clotbur. |
| 1608 Middleton Mad World v. ii. Wks. (Bullen) III. 350 I'll make you an example for all *ditch constables. |
| 1605 Shakes. Macb. iv. i. 31 Birth-strangled Babe, *Ditch-deliuer'd by a Drab. |
| 1605 ― Lear iii. iv. 138 Poore Tom, that..swallowes the old Rat, and the *ditch-Dogge. |
| 1611 Cotgr., Typhe, water-Torch, Cats⁓tayle, Reed Mace, *Ditch Downe, the marsh beetle or pestle. |
| 1889 Sat. Rev. 23 Mar. 335/2 The *ditch-drawn missiles they fling about them. |
| 14.. MS. Gloss. Sloane 5 fol. 40 b in Sax. Leechdoms III. 321 *Diche fern, Osmunda. |
| 1869 Blackmore Lorna D. iv, Here was no *ditch-labourer. |
| 1670 J. Smith Eng. Improv. Reviv'd 25 If the fence be measured by Wood, Hedge, or *Ditch measure, allowing 18 foot to the Perch. |
| c 1440 Gesta Rom. viii. 21 (Harl. MS.) The fond knyȝt thei cast in a *dich place. |
| 1843 Zoologist I. 100 By *ditch-sides and mill-pond streams. |
| 1562 T. Phaer æneid ix. Aa iij b, Doth *dichworks giue them pryde? |
| 1890 Pall Mall G. 4 Sept. 3/1 Frogs and minnows..and all the wonderful, mysterious *ditch-world that children love! |
▪ II. ditch, n.2 see under
ditch v.
2▪ III. ditch, v.1 (
dɪtʃ)
[f. ditch n.1 OE. had d{iacu}cian, but this would regularly give dike: cf. l{iacu}cian, like.] 1. intr. To construct a ditch or ditches.
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xix. 232 Somme he tauȝte to tilie to dyche and to thecche. 14.. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 584 Fosso, to dyche. 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §123 It is lesse cost..to quyckeset, dyche, and hedge, than to haue his cattell goo before the herdeman. 1776 J. Q. Adams in Fam. Lett. (1876) 195 The practice..of ditching round about our enemies. 1860 Emerson Cond. Life, Fate Wks. (Bohn) II. 314 They are ferried over the Atlantic, and carted over America, to ditch and to drudge. |
2. trans. To surround with a ditch; to cast a ditch
about,
around,
esp. for the purpose of defence, fortification, or fixing a boundary.
| 13.. K. Alis. 2658 That cite was..Wel y-walled, and well y-dyched. c 1386 Chaucer Knt.'s T. 1028 The circuit..a myle was aboute, Walled of stoon, and dyched al witoute. 1520 Caxton's Chron. Eng. vii. 118 b/2 He made..a fayre towne of pavylyons, and dyched them all aboute. 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §123 Seuerall closes and pastures..the whiche wolde be wel quyckesetted, dyched, & hedged. 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VIII (an. 12) 77 b, The Campe was..ditched rounde aboute. 1670 Milton Hist. Eng. ii. (1851) 42 Towns then in Britain were only Wooddy places Ditch't round. 1788 Filey Inclos. Act 14 The several parcels of land..shall be inclosed, hedged, ditched, or fenced. 1848 Petrie tr. A.S. Chron. 89 They ditched the city around [anno 1016 bedicodon þa burh utan]. |
3. a. To dig ditches or furrows in for purposes of drainage or irrigation; to provide with ditches.
| 1393 Gower Conf. I. 153 The erthe..men it delve and diche And eren it with strength of plough. 1565–73 Cooper Thesaurus, Agrum fossione concidere..to trench or ditch the grounde to avoyde water. 1598 Barret Theor. Warres iv. i. 99 Whether the countrey be stony, plaine field, or ditched. 1747 Franklin Let. Wks. 1887 II. 80 Eighty acres [of meadow], forty of which had been ditched and mowed. 1837 Howitt Rur. Life ii. iii. (1862) 110 Set two men to ditch the five roods. 1837 H. Martineau Soc. Amer. III. 325 Papa said he might be compelled to ditch rice fields, but he never would undertake to teach children again. |
b. To cut furrows in (stone).
| 1865 Morn. Star 18 Apr., It is driven by manual power, and is intended for cutting or ‘ditching’ the stone in the quarry. |
† 4. intr. Of the earth: To become ditched; to open up into furrows or chasms.
Obs.| 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 424/1 There cam a woman which meruaylled moche how therthe claue & dyched by hit self onelye by the touchying of the holy mannes Staffe. |
5. To clean out, scour (a ditch); to cast up and repair (the banks of a ditch or hedge).
| 1576 Act 18 Eliz. c. 10. §4 All and euery person and persons that shall not repaire, diche, or scoure any hayes, fences, diches, or hedges adioyning to any high way. Ibid. §6 Upon paine of forfeiture..for euery rod not so ditched and scoured xii.d. 1874 R. Jefferies in Toilers of Field (1893) 95 The Master has given him a hedge to cut and ditch. [1888 Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk., Dik,..to make good the sides and top of a hedge, which in this district is usually a high bank; i.e. to throw up the parings upon the top.] |
6. a. trans. To throw into or as into a ditch;
esp. in
U.S., to throw (a train) off the line or track.
| 1816 Sessions' Papers May/June 248/2 When I got up, they cried..ditch him, and I was immediately thrown into the ditch. 1877 J. A. Allen Amer. Bison 470 After having trains ditched twice in one week, conductors learned to have..respect for the idiosyncrasies of the buffalo. 1881 Philad. Rec. No. 3438. 1 A..train..struck a drove of cattle..on Saturday. The engine was ditched and turned on its side. |
b. slang. (
a)
trans. To bring (an aircraft) down into the sea in an emergency. (
b)
intr. To come down into the sea in an emergency.
Cf. ditch n.1 2 c. Hence
ditching vbl. n.| 1941 Times Weekly 15 Oct. 19 The pilot..must ‘ditch’ his aircraft in the sea, near enough to a ship for him to be picked up. 1941 in A. G. Smith et al. Investigations Behaviour Aircraft (1957) 23/2 Hudson ditching trials. 1943 Redding & Leyshon Skyways to Berlin xv. 100, I..got ready to ditch the plane. Ibid., We had had ditching practice. Ibid. 101 There is a standard procedure in ditching. 1944 Times 20 Mar. 5/7 The crews run over the ‘ditching’ procedure to be followed should they have to come down on the sea. 1958 Daily Mail 15 Aug. 2/5 If an airliner is ditching, it should give a Mayday call. 1962 D. Slayton in Into Orbit 23 Most flyers have had to learn some kind of ditching technique in case they make a forced landing over water. |
c. transf. and
fig. To defeat, frustrate; to abandon, discard; to jilt. (See also
quot. 1899.)
slang (
orig. U.S.).
| 1899 ‘J. Flynt’ Tramping with Tramps (1900) 393 Ditch, or be ditched, to get into trouble, or to fail at what one has undertaken. To be ‘ditched’ when riding on trains means to be put off, or to get locked into a car. 1911 Springfield (Mass.) Republican 31 Aug. 1 Its enactment into law would have ditched them in their present reciprocity campaign. 1921 T. Wolfe Let. 13 Nov. (1956) 22, C. is going to see a girl in Brookline that he met in the bank last summer and it seems the Ohio girl has been ditched. 1923 Saucy Stories 1 Mar. 74/1, I was gonna ask you to hop over to a dance... Can't you ditch the other guy? 1924 G. C. Henderson Keys to Crookdom 104 After they have committed the hold-up, they ‘ditch’ the stolen motor vehicle. 1926 J. Black You can't Win vii. 85 We got ‘ditched’ off our train at Port Costa, and crawled into a hay car for the night. 1946 ‘S. Russell’ To Bed with Grand Music ii. 27 Let's ditch the others and go and dance privately. 1948 L. A. G. Strong Trevannion 186 The one who scuppered his parents and ditched his wife. 1950 T. S. Eliot Cocktail Party ii. 117 It isn't simply the end of an illusion In the ordinary way, or being ditched. 1958 P. Kemp No Colours or Crest viii. 175 Davis..was struggling to carry the heavy wireless set; I shouted to him to ditch it and save himself. |
7. to ditch in,
ditch out: to enclose, or shut out, by means of a ditch;
to ditch up = 2.
| 1545 R. Ascham Toxoph. (Arb.) 96 The more vnreasonable is theyr dede whiche would ditche vp those feeldes priuatly for ther owne profyt. 1555 Latimer Serm. & Rem. (1845) 282 Indeed they ought regere..Not as they will themselves: but this regere must be hedged in and ditched in. 1630 R. Johnson's Kingd. & Commw. 39 To hedge and ditch out their incroaching neighbours. |
Hence
ditched ppl. a., furnished with a ditch; also with
adv., as
ditched-in, enclosed with a ditch.
| 1810 Sporting Mag. XXXV. 139 Four-mile heats..over the new ditched-in Course. 1895 United Service Mag. July 430 The ditched parapet. |
▪ IV. ditch, v.2 dial. Also
deech.
[OE. décan, ME. dēche to smear, daub: app. unknown to the other Teutonic langs. It is notable that this verb, used in OE. and in modern dialects, is known to us, during the intervening 900 years, only in the 15th c. transl. of Palladius on Husbandry: see deche. The modern ditch shows a recent shortening of (iː) to (
ɪ).]
trans. To smear, daub, plaster, impregnate,
esp. with dirt which hardens and becomes ‘ingrained’.
| a 1000, c 1420 [see deche v.]. 1790 W. Marshall Midl. Counties Gloss. (E.D.S.) Ditch, to stick to, as the clamminess of mow-burnt hay sticks to the cutting knife. 1860 (Northamptonsh.) ‘His face and hands are ditched with dirt.’ 1872 Besant & Rice Ready-Money Mortiboy xxi, Smearing his coarse hands with spirits, to get off the dirt with which they were ditched. 1881 Leicester Gloss. s.v., The touch-'ole were reg'lar ditched up. 1896 Academy 29 Feb. 178/3 Deech't. |
b. intr. for refl.| 1881 Leicester Gloss., Ditch..to get dirty; filled with dirt. ‘My hands never ditch’, i.e. the dirt does not get grained into them so that it will not wash off. |
Hence
ditch n.2 dial. ‘dirt grained into the hands, or in cracks, crevices, etc.’ (
Leicester Gloss.).
| 1847–78 Halliwell, Ditch, grimy dirt. 1881 Leicester Gloss. s.v., I want to get off the ditch. |