Library / English Dictionary

DITCH

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A long narrow excavation in the earth

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("ditch" is a kind of...):

excavation (a hole in the ground made by excavating)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "ditch"):

drainage ditch (a ditch for carrying off excess water or sewage)

irrigation ditch (a ditch to supply dry land with water artificially)

ha-ha; haw-haw; sunk fence (a ditch with one side being a retaining wall; used to divide lands without defacing the landscape)

trench (a ditch dug as a fortification having a parapet of the excavated earth)

trench (any long ditch cut in the ground)

Derivation:

ditch (cut a trench in, as for drainage)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Any small natural waterway

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Hypernyms ("ditch" is a kind of...):

waterway (a navigable body of water)

Derivation:

ditch (cut a trench in, as for drainage)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cut a trench in, as for drainage

Example:

trench the fields

Synonyms:

ditch; trench

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "ditch" is one way to...):

dig; excavate; hollow (remove the inner part or the core of)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

ditch (a long narrow excavation in the earth)

ditch (any small natural waterway)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Crash or crash-land

Example:

ditch a plane

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "ditch" is one way to...):

crash (cause to crash)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 3

Meaning:

Make an emergency landing on water

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "ditch" is one way to...):

crash land (make an emergency landing)

Domain category:

air; air travel; aviation (travel via aircraft)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 4

Meaning:

Sever all ties with, usually unceremoniously or irresponsibly

Example:

She dumped her boyfriend when she fell in love with a rich man

Synonyms:

ditch; dump

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "ditch" is one way to...):

get rid of; remove (dispose of)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Sense 5

Meaning:

Throw away

Example:

Chuck these old notes

Synonyms:

chuck; ditch

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "ditch" is one way to...):

abandon (forsake, leave behind)

Domain usage:

argot; cant; jargon; lingo; patois; slang; vernacular (a characteristic language of a particular group (as among thieves))

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 6

Meaning:

Forsake

Example:

ditch a lover

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "ditch" is one way to...):

abandon; desert; desolate; forsake (leave someone who needs or counts on you; leave in the lurch)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Credits

 Context examples: 

To see him leap and run and pursue me over hedge and ditch was the worst of nightmares.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Every road leading from London, as well as those from Guildford in the west and Tunbridge in the east, had contributed their stream of four-in-hands, gigs, and mounted sportsmen, until the whole broad Brighton highway was choked from ditch to ditch with a laughing, singing, shouting throng, all flowing in the same direction.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

As there were no indications of bootmarks about this ditch, I was absolutely sure not only that the Cunninghams had again lied, but that there had never been any unknown man upon the scene at all.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

So they sat down to consider what they should do, and after serious thought the Scarecrow said: Here is a great tree, standing close to the ditch.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

But the Scarecrow said, "We cannot fly, that is certain. Neither can we climb down into this great ditch. Therefore, if we cannot jump over it, we must stop where we are."

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

They had hardly been walking an hour when they saw before them a great ditch that crossed the road and divided the forest as far as they could see on either side.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

It was a very wide ditch, and when they crept up to the edge and looked into it they could see it was also very deep, and there were many big, jagged rocks at the bottom.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

Then the Lion put his strong front legs against the tree and pushed with all his might, and slowly the big tree tipped and fell with a crash across the ditch, with its top branches on the other side.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

"See!" he explained. "It went in the ditch."

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)

In the ditch beside the road, right side up but violently shorn of one wheel, rested a new coupé which had left Gatsby's drive not two minutes before.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)