Definition of "dyke"

dyke¹

/daɪk/

noun
plural dykes
1. (historical) A long, narrow hollow dug from the ground to serve as a boundary marker.
2. A long, narrow hollow dug from the ground to conduct water.
3. (dialect) Any navigable watercourse.
4. (dialect) Any watercourse.
5. (dialect) Any small body of water.
6. (obsolete) Any hollow dug into the ground.
7. (now chiefly Australia, slang) A place to urinate and defecate: an outhouse or lavatory.
  Quotations
  In Cubbaroo's dim distant past They built a double dyke. Back to back in the yard it stood An architectural dream in wood.
  1977, Ian Slack-Smith, “The Passing of the Twin Seater”, in The Cubbaroo Tales
8. An embankment formed by the creation of a ditch.
9. (obsolete outside heraldry) a masoned city or castle wall.
  Quotations
  Inchbrakie gives for Arms, Or, a Dyke (or Wall) Feſsways, broke down in ſome places, and in Baſe a Roſe Gules, on a chief Sable three Eſcalops of the firſt. The Dyke (or Wall) here, is aſſumed not only to difference, but to perpetuate the valiant Action of Graham before mentioned; in throwing down the Wall and Ditch, which the Romans made betwixt Forth and Clyde, to keep out the Scots, [...]
  1722, Alexander Nisbet, A System of Heraldry Speculative and Practical, page 82
  Wall, (sometimes called a dyke, fr. mur) : this is generally found in connection with castles or towns which are walled (muraillé). A wall of which kind should be masoned (fr. maçonné) and embattled (fr. crenellé), even though this be not specified. [...] Or, a dyke [or wall] fesswise [masoned proper] broken down in some places gules; [...] —Graham, Inchbrakie, Scotland [similar arms borne by Græme of Stapleton].
  1894, Henry Gough, James Parker, A Glossary of Terms Used in Heraldry, page 608
  The Galloway Dyke / In southwest Scotland there is a local style of dry stone dyke that is now recognized as 'the Galloway dyke', although when this pattern of was first developed, it was simply described as 'the sheep dyke'.
  2023 February 21, Nick Aitken, Dry Stone Walling - Materials and Techniques, The Crowood Press
10. (now chiefly Scotland) A low embankment or stone wall serving as an enclosure and boundary marker.
  Quotations
  The Galloway Dyke / In southwest Scotland there is a local style of dry stone dyke that is now recognized as 'the Galloway dyke', although when this pattern of was first developed, it was simply described as 'the sheep dyke'.
  2023 February 21, Nick Aitken, Dry Stone Walling - Materials and Techniques, The Crowood Press
11. (dialect) Any fence or hedge.
12. An earthwork raised to prevent inundation of low land by the sea or flooding rivers.
  Quotations
  The king of Texcuco advised the building of a great dike, so thick and strong as to keep out the water.
  1891, Susan Hale, The Story of Nations: Mexico, page 100
13. (figuratively) Any impediment, barrier, or difficulty.
14. A beaver's dam.
15. (dialect) A jetty; a pier.
16. A raised causeway.
17. (dialect, mining) A fissure in a rock stratum filled with intrusive rock; a fault.
18. (geology) A body of rock (usually igneous) originally filling a fissure but now often rising above the older stratum as it is eroded away.
  Quotations
  Their exact relationship to the host-rock is obscure but from their texture and observed metamorphic relationship they are thought to be intrusive dykes rather than intercalations of more basic lava.
  1968, Transactions of the Geological Society of South Africa, page 148
verb
third-person singular simple present dykes, present participle dyking, simple past and past participle dyked
1. (transitive or intransitive) To dig, particularly to create a ditch.
2. (transitive) To surround with a ditch, to entrench.
3. (transitive, Scotland) To surround with a low dirt or stone wall.
4. (transitive or intransitive) To raise a protective earthwork against a sea or river.
5. (transitive) To scour a watercourse.
6. (transitive) To steep [fibers] within a watercourse.

dyke²

noun
plural dykes
1. (slang, usually derogatory, offensive) A lesbian, particularly one with masculine or butch traits or behavior.
2. (slang, usually derogatory, loosely, offensive) A non-heterosexual woman.