Dike (?), n. [OE. dic, dike, diche, ditch, AS. dc dike, ditch; akin to D. dijk dike, G. deich, and prob. teich pond, Icel. dki dike, ditch, Dan. dige; perh. akin to Gr. (for ) wall, and even E. dough; or perh. to Gr. pool, marsh. Cf. Ditch.]
1.
A ditch; a channel for water made by digging.
Little channels or dikes cut to every bed.
Ray.
2.
An embankment to prevent inundations; a levee.
Dikes that the hands of the farmers had raised . . .
Shut out the turbulent tides.
Longfellow.
3.
A wall of turf or stone.
[Scot.]
4. Geol.
A wall-like mass of mineral matter, usually an intrusion of igneous rocks, filling up rents or fissures in the original strata.
© Webster 1913.
Dike, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Diked (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Diking.] [OE. diken, dichen, AS. dician to dike. See Dike.]
1.
To surround or protect with a dike or dry bank; to secure with a bank.
2.
To drain by a dike or ditch.
© Webster 1913.
Dike, v. i.
To work as a ditcher; to dig.
[Obs.]
He would thresh and thereto dike and delve.
Chaucer.
© Webster 1913.