DITCH

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does ditch mean? 

• DITCH (noun)
  The noun DITCH has 2 senses:

1. a long narrow excavation in the earth

2. any small natural waterway

  Familiarity information: DITCH used as a noun is rare.

• DITCH (verb)
  The verb DITCH has 6 senses:

1. forsake

2. throw away

3. sever all ties with, usually unceremoniously or irresponsibly

4. make an emergency landing on water

5. crash or crash-land

6. cut a trench in, as for drainage

  Familiarity information: DITCH used as a verb is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DITCH (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)

• DITCH (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they ditch    ... he / she / it ditches   
Past simple: ditched   
Past participle: ditched   
-ing form: ditching   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Forsake

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Context example:

ditch a lover

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

Sense 2

Meaning:

Throw away

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Synonyms:

chuck; ditch

Context example:

Chuck these old notes

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 3

Meaning:

Sever all ties with, usually unceremoniously or irresponsibly

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Synonyms:

ditch; dump

Context example:

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

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

get rid of; remove (dispose of)

Sentence frames:

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

Sense 4

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 5

Meaning:

Crash or crash-land

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Context example:

ditch a plane

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

crash (cause to crash)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 6

Meaning:

Cut a trench in, as for drainage

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

ditch; trench

Context example:

trench the fields

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)

 Context examples 

He had been thinking what was best to be done, and now he asked the Woodman to chop away the end of the tree that rested on their side of the ditch.

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

At this Pew saw his error, turned with a scream, and ran straight for the ditch, into which he rolled.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

At that point, however, as it happens, there is a broadish ditch, moist at the bottom.

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

And you do not lie dead in some ditch under some stream?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

“My jurisdiction ends at that ditch, sir,” said he.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He leaped a ditch, went through a rail fence, and fled across a field.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

A sluggish ditch deposited its mud at the prison walls.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The next morning I dug a shallow ditch around the tent, and, an hour later, a sudden gust of wind, whipping over the rocky wall behind us, picked up the tent and smashed it down on the sand thirty yards away.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

She then broke the lace off short, and dexterously throwing it into a ditch, was presently obliged to entreat them to stop, and acknowledged her inability to put herself to rights so as to be able to walk home in tolerable comfort.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

They were all greatly pleased to see how easily he did it, and after the Scarecrow had got down from his back the Lion sprang across the ditch again.

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