ditch
pronunciation
How to pronounce ditch in British English:
UK [dɪtʃ]
How to pronounce ditch in American English:
US [dɪtʃ]
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- Noun:
- a long narrow excavation in the earth
- any small natural waterway
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- Verb:
- forsake
- throw away
- sever all ties with, usually unceremoniously or irresponsibly
- make an emergency landing on water
- crash or crash-land
- cut a trench in, as for drainage
Word Origin
- ditch
- ditch: [OE] Like its close relative dyke [13], ditch probably comes ultimately from a long-lost language once spoken on the shores of the Baltic. Its source-word seems to have represented an all-embracing notion of ‘excavation’, including not just the hole dug but also the mound formed from the excavated earth (which perhaps supports the suggestion that dig belongs to the same word-family). This dichotomy of sense is preserved in dyke, whose original meaning, from Old Norse dík, was ‘ditch’, but which came in the 15th century to denote ‘embankment’ (probably under the influence of Middle Dutch dijc ‘dam’).=> dig, dyke
- ditch (n.)
- Old English dic "ditch, dike," a variant of dike (q.v.). Last ditch (1715) refers to the last line of military defenses.
- ditch (v.)
- late 14c., "surround with a ditch; dig a ditch;" from ditch (n.). Meaning "to throw into a ditch" is from 1816, hence sense of "abandon, discard," first recorded 1899 in American English. Of aircraft, by 1941. Related: Ditched; ditching.
Example
- 1. Ms yingluck should ditch her plan and embrace theirs .
- 2. Eg. the driver had to ditch the bus .
- 3. But in doing so they 've tossed schumacher 's dictum into the ditch .
- 4. So , ditch that rss reader and start using twitter for all your news consumption .
- 5. The horses and riders have to successfully jump a total of 30 fences , made more difficult by a six-foot-wide ditch on the take-off side .