different between mitch vs ditch

English

Alternative forms

• mich, mych, myche, meech, meach
• miche (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English mychen, müchen (“to rob, steal, pilfer”), from Old English *my??an (“to steal”), from Proto-Germanic *mukjan? (“to waylay, ambush, hide, rob”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)m?g- (“swindler, thief”). Cognate with Scots mich, myche (“to steal”), Saterland Frisian mogeln (“to act secretively and deceitfully”), Dutch mokkelen (“to flatter”), Alemannic German mauchen (“to nibble secretively”), German mogeln (“to cheat”), German meucheln (“to assassinate”), Norwegian i mugg (“in secret, secretly”), Latin muger (“cheater”). Related to mooch.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /m?t?/
• Rhymes: -?t?

Verb

mitch (third-person singular simple present mitches, present participle mitching, simple past and past participle mitched)

1. (transitive, dialectal) To pilfer; filch; steal.
2. (intransitive, dialectal) To shrink or retire from view; lurk out of sight; skulk.
3. (Ireland, Wales) To be absent from school without a valid excuse; to play truant.
   • 1983, Bernard MacLaverty, Cal, Chapter 4. (p.115 in the 1998 Vintage paperback edition):

     "Did you ever mitch school?" he asked.
     "No. But I think this is what it would feel like."

   John said he was going to mitch the last lesson today.

4. (intransitive, dialectal) To grumble secretly.
5. (intransitive, dialectal) To pretend poverty.

Synonyms

(play truant):

• bunk off
• skive

Derived terms

• mitcher
• mitchery
• mitching

Translations

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