dike

Multiple Entries:
  dike    dyke  

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
dike1

▶noun variant spelling of dyke1.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
dike2

▶noun variant spelling of dyke2.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
dyke1 (also dike)

▶noun

• 1 an embankment built to prevent flooding from the sea.

  ■ an earthwork serving as a boundary or defence: Offa's Dyke.

• 2 a ditch or watercourse.

• 3 Geology an intrusion of igneous rock cutting across existing strata. Compare with sill.

▶verb (often as adj. dyked) provide (land) with a dyke to prevent flooding.

– origin ME: from ON dík, rel. to ditch.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
dyke2 (also dike)

▶noun informal a lesbian.

– derivatives
dykey adjective (dykier, dykiest).

– origin 1940s (earlier as bulldyke): of unknown origin.