dyke
pronunciation
How to pronounce dyke in British English:
UK [daɪk]
How to pronounce dyke in American English:
US [daɪk]
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- Noun:
- offensive terms for a lesbian who is noticeably masculine
- a barrier constructed to contain the flow of water or to keep out the sea
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- Verb:
- enclose with a dike
Word Origin
- dyke
- dyke: see ditch
- dyke (n.)
- 1931, American English, perhaps a shortening of morphadike, dialectal garbling of hermaphrodite; but bulldyker "engage in lesbian activities" is attested from 1921, and a source from 1896 lists dyke as slang for "the vulva." [T]he word appears first in the long forms, bulldiker and bulldyking, both used in the 1920s by American blacks. No African antecedents have been found for the term, however, which leads to the possibility that this is basically just another backcountry, barnyard word, perhaps a combination of BULL and DICK. [Rawson]
Example
- 1. Officials later said the dyke was repaired and nothing spilled .
- 2. If one of its parts should flood the dyke protects the other .
- 3. You could still find the central rose walk , and the old dyke was white with strawberry blossoms and blue with violets and green with baby fern .
- 4. Since the french and dutch " no " votes in 2005 , pro-europeans have acted like the mythical boy with his finger in the dyke ; unwilling to give ground for fear of a eurosceptic flood .
- 5. The internet means that " trying to prevent things being said in one country is like the little dutch boy holding his finger in the dyke while water is pouring over the top , " says mark stephens , a media specialist at finer stephens innocent , a law firm .