1
civil engineering
: an artificial watercourse : ditch
2
civil engineering
a
: a bank (see bank entry 1 sense 1) usually of earth constructed to control or confine water : levee
b
: a barrier preventing passage especially of something undesirable
diked; diking
1
civil engineering
: to surround or protect with a dike (see dike entry 1)
2
civil engineering
: to drain by a dike
diker
noun
civil engineering
Synonyms
Examples of dike in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Kansas City Star, 10 Apr. 2024
Just weeks after the flood, a committee was formed to develop a national water-defense plan, which became known as the Delta Works, involving more than twenty thousand kilometres of new seawalls, dikes, and dams.
—Kyle Chayka, The New Yorker, 25 Mar. 2024
But Spanish invaders obliterated the Aztec capital in the 16th century, smashing dikes and other Indigenous hydraulic works.
—Patrick J. McDonnell, Los Angeles Times, 21 Mar. 2024
With continuous heavy rain causing widespread flooding, the German army was deployed to help reinforce dikes in the Eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt on Friday.
—Derrick Bryson Taylor, New York Times, 5 Jan. 2024
That day, another noisy flow of magma left the sill and overfilled the dike.
—Robin George Andrews, Quanta Magazine, 20 Feb. 2024
And building the dike in Kazakhstan cut off the south part of the sea in Uzbekistan from its crucial water source.
—Victoria Milko, Quartz, 8 Feb. 2024
As a storm is slowly approaching, Gregers and his faithful dog inspect the obsolete dikes that protect his beloved island.
—Leo Barraclough, Variety, 30 Jan. 2024
In the storm’s wake, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers encased the lake with a 40-foot-tall dike, drastically altering the ecology of South Florida.
—Michael Adno, Rolling Stone, 7 Jan. 2024
oregonlive, 17 June 2023
In addition to the hundreds of thousands of acres of marshland that were drained or diked off, the researchers discovered former wetlands that now are forested that were unknown to anybody.
—Peter Fimrite, SFChronicle.com, 17 Aug. 2019
Ed Musial blames a series of finger dikes the state installed in the 1980s for channeling the river past their homes.
—Zaz Hollander, Anchorage Daily News, 30 June 2019
The southern banks along Svensen Slough, a side channel of the Columbia River, have transformed over time from historic spruce swamp into fields diked off by European settlers for farming.
—Edward Stratton, The Christian Science Monitor, 2 Apr. 2018
Aerial photos show portions of the land – diked and drained for agriculture by the 1930s and cut in half by US Highway 30 by the 1970s – slowly returning to wetlands as levees broke down and breached.
—Edward Stratton, The Christian Science Monitor, 2 Apr. 2018
The tank area is believed to be diked and lined to contain spilled fuel.
—Zaz Hollander, Anchorage Daily News, 15 Mar. 2018
That was before humans drained and diked estuaries to build cities, grow crops, and make salt.
—National Geographic, 13 June 2017
Noun
However, these dikes also extend as sills in shallow angles out from the Contention fault along fold noses in the Bisbee clastic sediments so the full range of mineralization dips vary from 20 to 80 degrees.
—Kansas City Star, 10 Apr. 2024
Just weeks after the flood, a committee was formed to develop a national water-defense plan, which became known as the Delta Works, involving more than twenty thousand kilometres of new seawalls, dikes, and dams.
—Kyle Chayka, The New Yorker, 25 Mar. 2024
But Spanish invaders obliterated the Aztec capital in the 16th century, smashing dikes and other Indigenous hydraulic works.
—Patrick J. McDonnell, Los Angeles Times, 21 Mar. 2024
With continuous heavy rain causing widespread flooding, the German army was deployed to help reinforce dikes in the Eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt on Friday.
—Derrick Bryson Taylor, New York Times, 5 Jan. 2024
That day, another noisy flow of magma left the sill and overfilled the dike.
—Robin George Andrews, Quanta Magazine, 20 Feb. 2024
And building the dike in Kazakhstan cut off the south part of the sea in Uzbekistan from its crucial water source.
—Victoria Milko, Quartz, 8 Feb. 2024
As a storm is slowly approaching, Gregers and his faithful dog inspect the obsolete dikes that protect his beloved island.
—Leo Barraclough, Variety, 30 Jan. 2024
In the storm’s wake, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers encased the lake with a 40-foot-tall dike, drastically altering the ecology of South Florida.
—Michael Adno, Rolling Stone, 7 Jan. 2024
Verb
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.
—oregonlive, 17 June 2023
In addition to the hundreds of thousands of acres of marshland that were drained or diked off, the researchers discovered former wetlands that now are forested that were unknown to anybody.
—Peter Fimrite, SFChronicle.com, 17 Aug. 2019
Ed Musial blames a series of finger dikes the state installed in the 1980s for channeling the river past their homes.
—Zaz Hollander, Anchorage Daily News, 30 June 2019
The southern banks along Svensen Slough, a side channel of the Columbia River, have transformed over time from historic spruce swamp into fields diked off by European settlers for farming.
—Edward Stratton, The Christian Science Monitor, 2 Apr. 2018
Aerial photos show portions of the land – diked and drained for agriculture by the 1930s and cut in half by US Highway 30 by the 1970s – slowly returning to wetlands as levees broke down and breached.
—Edward Stratton, The Christian Science Monitor, 2 Apr. 2018
The tank area is believed to be diked and lined to contain spilled fuel.
—Zaz Hollander, Anchorage Daily News, 15 Mar. 2018
That was before humans drained and diked estuaries to build cities, grow crops, and make salt.
—National Geographic, 13 June 2017
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'dike.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near dike
Cite this Entry
“Dike.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dike. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
dike
2 of 2 verb
diked; diking
1
: to surround or protect with a dike
2
: to drain by a dike
diker
noun
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