different between ditch vs dimple

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d?t?/
• Rhymes: -?t?

Etymology 1

From Middle English dich, from Old English d?? (“trench, moat”) from Proto-Germanic *d?kaz (compare Swedish dike, Icelandic díki, West Frisian dyk (“dam”), Dutch dijk (“id.”), German Teich (“pond”)), from Proto-Indo-European *d?eyg?- (“to stick, set up”) (compare Latin f?g? (“to affix, fasten”), Lithuanian diegti (“to prick; plant”), dýgsti (“to geminate, grow”)). Doublet of dike.

Noun

ditch (plural ditches)

1. A trench; a long, shallow indentation, as for irrigation or drainage.

2. (Ireland) A raised bank of earth and the hedgerow on top.
   • c. 1947, Patrick Kavanagh, Stony Grey Soil

     You flung a ditch on my vision

     Of beauty, love and truth.

     O stony grey soil of Monaghan

     You burgled my bank of youth!

   • 2013, Frank McNally, When Anglophone lines get crossed

     The original ditches were created by digging trenches, as boundaries and/or irrigation. But to the English, the ditch is the trench. Whereas in Ireland, the ditch is the raised bank of earth and the hedgerow on top. (As for the trench, where I come from that’s a sheugh).

References

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• fosse
• moat

Verb

ditch (third-person singular simple present ditches, present participle ditching, simple past and past participle ditched)

1. (transitive) To discard or abandon.

2. To deliberately crash-land an airplane on water.

3. (intransitive) To deliberately not attend classes; to play hookey.

4. (intransitive) To dig ditches.

5. (transitive) To dig ditches around.

6. (transitive) To throw into a ditch.

Synonyms

• abandon
• discard
• dump
• jettison
• lose
• shed
• See also Thesaurus:junk

Translations

Etymology 2

From earlier deche, from Middle English dechen, from Old English d?can (“to smear, plaster, daub”). More at deech.

Verb

ditch (third-person singular simple present ditches, present participle ditching, simple past and past participle ditched)

1. Alternative form of deech

Noun

ditch (usually uncountable, plural ditches)

1. Alternative form of deech

English

Etymology

From Middle English dympull, likely from Proto-Germanic *dumpila- (“sink-hole, dimple”), from Proto-Germanic *dumpa- (“hole, hollow, pit”), from Proto-Indo-European *d?ewb- (“deep, hollow”), equivalent to dialectal dump (“deep hole or pool”) +? -le (diminutive suffix). Akin to Old High German tumphilo (“pool”) (whence German Tümpel) and Old English dyppan (“to dip”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?d?mp?l/
• Rhymes: -?mp?l

Noun

dimple (plural dimples)

1. A small depression or indentation in a surface.
   • 1815, William Wordsworth, The White Doe of Rylstone; or, The Fate of the Nortons

     The garden pool's dark surface […] breaks into dimples small and bright.

2. Specifically, a small natural depression on the skin, especially on the face near the corners of the mouth.

Synonyms

• (depression in a surface): dent

Translations

Verb

dimple (third-person singular simple present dimples, present participle dimpling, simple past and past participle dimpled)

1. (transitive) To create a dimple in.

2. (intransitive) To create a dimple in one's face by smiling.

3. To form dimples; to sink into depressions or little inequalities.

   • And smiling eddies dimpled o'er the main.

Synonyms

• (create a dimple in): dent, mar

Translations

Anagrams

• impled, limped