Link Centre Dictionary

ditch

UK/dɪt͡ʃ/ US/ˈdɪtʃ/ fairly common slang
noun (2) verb (6)

noun

1.
2.

verb

1.

forsake

  • “ditch a lover”
2.

throw away

  • “Chuck these old notes”
Synonyms
3.

sever all ties with, usually unceremoniously or irresponsibly

  • “The company dumped him after many years of service”
  • “She dumped her boyfriend when she fell in love with a rich man”
Synonyms
4.
5.

crash or crash-land

  • “ditch a car”
  • “ditch a plane”
6.

cut a trench in, as for drainage

  • “ditch the land to drain it”
  • “trench the fields”
Synonyms

Origin

From Middle English dich, from Old English dīċ (“trench, moat”) from Proto-Germanic *dīkaz (compare Swedish dike, Icelandic díki, West Frisian dyk (“dam”), Dutch dijk (“dam”), German Teich (“pond”)), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeygʷ- (“to stick, set up”) (compare Latin fīgō (“to affix, fasten”), Lithuanian diegti (“to prick; plant”), dýgsti (“to geminate, grow”)).

Phrases

  • ditch out
  • The Ditch

Related words

Word family

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.