different between wall vs ditch

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /w??l/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /w?l/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /w?l/
• Rhymes: -??l

Etymology 1

From Middle English wall, from Old English weall (“wall, dike, earthwork, rampart, dam, rocky shore, cliff”), from Proto-Germanic *wallaz, *wall? (“wall, rampart, entrenchment”), from Latin vallum (“wall, rampart, entrenchment, palisade”), from Proto-Indo-European *wel- (“to turn, wind, roll”). Perhaps conflated with waw (“a wall within a house or dwelling, a room partition”), from Middle English wawe, from Old English w?g, w?h (“an interior wall, divider”), see waw. Cognate with North Frisian wal (“wall”), Saterland Frisian Waal (“wall, rampart, mound”), Dutch wal (“wall, rampart, embankment”), German Wall (“rampart, mound, embankment”), Swedish vall (“mound, wall, bank”). More at wallow, walk.

Noun

wall (plural walls)

1. A rampart of earth, stones etc. built up for defensive purposes.
2. A structure built for defense surrounding a city, castle etc.
3. Each of the substantial structures acting either as the exterior of or divisions within a structure.
4. A point of desperation.
5. A point of defeat or extinction.
6. An impediment to free movement.

7. A type of butterfly (Lasiommata megera).
8. (often in combination) A barrier.

9. A barrier to vision.
10. Something with the apparent solidity and dimensions of a building wall.

11. (anatomy, zoology, botany) A divisive or containing structure in an organ or cavity.
12. (auction) A fictional bidder used to increase the price at an auction.

    Synonym: chandelier

13. (US, slang, medicine) A doctor who tries to admit as few patients as possible.

    Antonym: sieve

14. (soccer) A line of defenders set up between an opposing free-kick taker and the goal.
15. (Internet) A personal notice board listing messages of interest to a particular user.

Synonyms

• (rampart): rampart
• (fictional bidder at an auction): chandelier
• (personal notice board): profile

Meronyms

• (rampart): terreplein (level walkway); parapet, crenellation (minor secondary wall protecting the terreplein); banquette (area elevated above the terreplein for use by defenders)

Translations

Verb

wall (third-person singular simple present walls, present participle walling, simple past and past participle walled)

1. To enclose with, or as if with, a wall or walls.

   He walled the study with books.

Derived terms

• wall in
• wall off
• wall up

Translations

Derived terms

Etymology 2

From Middle English wallen, from Old English weallan (“to bubble, boil”), from Proto-Germanic *wall?n?, *well?n? (“to fount, stream, boil”), from Proto-Indo-European *wel?n-, *wel?m- (“wave”). Cognate with Middle Dutch wallen (“to boil, bubble”), Dutch wellen (“to weld”), German wellen (“to wave, warp”), Danish vælde (“to overwhelm”), Swedish välla (“to gush, weld”). See also well.

Verb

wall (third-person singular simple present walls, present participle walling, simple past and past participle walled)

1. To boil.
2. To well, as water; spring.

Related terms

• well
• overwhelm

Etymology 3

From Middle English walle, from Old English *wealla, *weall (“spring”), from Proto-Germanic *wallô, *wallaz (“well, spring”). See above. Cognate with Old Frisian walla (“spring”), Old English wiell (“well”).

Noun

wall (plural walls)

1. (chiefly dialectal) A spring of water.

Etymology 4

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

wall (plural walls)

1. (nautical) A kind of knot often used at the end of a rope; a wall knot or wale.

Verb

wall (third-person singular simple present walls, present participle walling, simple past and past participle walled)

1. (transitive, nautical) To make a wall knot on the end of (a rope).

Etymology 5

Interjection

wall

1. (US) Pronunciation spelling of well.
   • 1858, The New Priest in Conception Bay by Robert Lowell [2]

     Wall, they spoke up, 'n' says to her, s'd they, "Why, look a-here, aunty, Wus't his skin, 't was rock?" so s's she, "I guess not." (Well, they spoke up and says to her, said they, "Why look a-here, aunty, was it his skin that was rock [referring to the Apostle Peter]?" So says she, "I guess not.")

   • 1988, Herbert M. Sutherland, Tall Tales of the Devil's Apron, The Overmountain Press ?ISBN, page 97

     Wall, be that as it may, ol' Hosshead was a purty good citizen in his day, an' he shore did make Juneybell toe the mark.

Anagrams

• lawl

German

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -al

Verb

wall

1. singular imperative of wallen
2. (colloquial) first-person singular present of wallen

Middle English

Noun

wall

1. Alternative form of wale (“selection, preference”)

Adjective

wall

1. Alternative form of wale

Scots

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /w?l/, /wal/

Noun

wall (plural walls)

1. A well. (clarification of this definition is needed)

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