dike

¹

or dyke

[ dahyk ]

noun

1. an embankment for controlling or holding back the waters of the sea or a river:

   They built a temporary dike of sandbags to keep the river from flooding the town.

2. a ditch.
3. a bank of earth formed of material being excavated.
4. a causeway.
5. British Dialect. a low wall or fence, especially of earth or stone, for dividing or enclosing land.
6. an obstacle; barrier.
7. Geology.
   1. a long, narrow, cross-cutting mass of igneous rock intruded into a fissure in older rock.
   2. a similar mass of rock composed of other kinds of material, as sandstone.
8. Australian Slang. a urinal.

verb (used with object)

, diked, dik·ing.

1. to furnish or drain with a dike.
2. to enclose, restrain, or protect by a dike:

   to dike a tract of land.

dike

²

[ dahyk ]

noun

, Slang: Disparaging and Offensive.

1. dyke ².

dike

/ daɪk /

noun

1. a variant spelling of dyke 1

dike

/ dīk /

1. A body of igneous rock that cuts across the structure of adjoining rock, usually as a result of the intrusion of magma. Dikes are often of a different composition from the rock they cut across. They are usually on the order of centimeters to meters across and up to tens of kilometers long.
2. See illustration at batholith
3. An embankment of earth and rock built to prevent floods or to hold irrigation water in for agricultural purposes.

Other Words From

• diker noun
• un·diked adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of dike¹

before 900; Middle English dik ( e ), Old English dīc < Old Norse dīki; akin to ditch

Example Sentences

The decision was largely informed by alarmingly low salmon runs as a result of heavily dammed, diked and channeled streams struggling to maintain healthy flows in the face of droughts and warming summers.

From Seattle Times

When the river basin was diked and drained for agriculture, the river became rigid and channeled, acting as a firehose for sediment headed downriver from the stream’s upper reaches.

From Seattle Times

Estuaries — a refuge for growing juvenile salmon — have been diked and drained to create farmland.

From Seattle Times

In the early 1900s, this land was diked and drained to create farmland.

From Seattle Times

The delta was once filled with vast tidal marshes but was dramatically altered as wetlands were diked, drained and converted to farmland.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• barrier
• ditch
• dyke
• levee

About This Word

What else does dike mean?

Dike is an extremely offensive slur for a lesbian. It has been reappropriated by some in the LGBTQ community as a label of pride and solidarity.

What are some other forms of dike?

dyke

Where does dike come from?

The origins of the term dike to mean “lesbian” are unclear. Its predecessor appears to be bull-dyke, recorded in the 1890s for a “masculine lesbian.” The bull, here, may indicate a manliness, while dyke may ultimately be a corruption of hermaphrodite.

Dike and dyke, as in a “ditch,” were slang for “vulva” in the late 1800s. English professor Susan Krantz has argued dike is a corruption of dick. She also connects bull-dyke to bull (“lies”), making bull-dyke a kind of fake man.

Dyke itself is seen by 1930, commonly spelled dike, and it later became a verb for “to have lesbian sex” or “be a lesbian.” In the 1960s, the modifier dikey appeared.

Dike is a homophobic slur, but, as is true of many slurs in marginalized groups, the lesbian community reclaimed it in the 1970s, notably in the 1971 poem “The Psychoanalysis of Edward the Dyke” by feminist Judy Grahn. Some lesbians took on the label dike as a show of pride and solidarity.

In 1993, the first Dyke March was held throughout the U.S. and Canada. The march was organized as part of a larger national movement for LGBTQ rights. Dyke marches traditionally occur the night or day before larger Pride parades to ensure visibility for queer women.

In December 2005, the lesbian motorcycle club Dykes on Bikes won a case with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to trademark its name after being initially denied on the grounds that it was offensive, which shows how effectively a part of the lesbian community reappropriated the term.

How is dike used in real life?

Dike, like vulgar words, depends on who is using it and how. For some members of the LGBTQ community, calling yourself (or someone else) a dike is a matter of pride and identity. That said, some lesbians still find dike very offensive, given the history of the term.

Just because dike has been reclaimed by some in the LGBTQ community, that doesn’t mean people outside of it don’t still use dike as a slur for lesbians or masculine-seeming women. Openly gay Scottish politician Mhairi Black, for instance, she has described many homophobic messages calling her dyke and other anti-lesbian slurs.

More examples of dike:

“On Saturday, thousands of queer women and dyke-identified trans and nonbinary folks marched down Fifth Avenue in New York to demonstrate to the world exactly what a dykeocracy looks like.”

—Mary Emily O’Hara, Them, June 2018