ditch
part of speech
noun (ditch, ditches); verb (ditch, ditches, ditched, ditching)
meaning for a pupil
1) A ditch is a long narrow hole dug in the ground, often along a road or field for water. tree →
2) To ditch something is to get rid of it or leave it (informal). tree →
3) To ditch a plane is to land it on water in an emergency. tree →
sense in the lessons
a length that is dug; metres dug each day, how long it takes a team; in farming ditches carry rainwater away from fields; in safety: a ditch by a road can be deep and full of water; phrases: «dig a ditch», «a last-ditch try» (a final try when all else failed)
examples
- They dig a ditch 60 metres long. tree →
- Each day they dig 12 metres of the ditch. tree →
- How many days to finish the ditch? tree →
- 2 workers dig the ditch together. tree →
- The car slid off the icy road into a ditch. tree →
- Frogs live in the muddy ditch by the field. tree →
- He ditched his old bike and bought a new one. tree →
- Rainwater runs along the ditch into the stream. tree →
- Caw! caw! a crow flew up from the ditch. tree →
note
Length ÷ length per day gives the days. A work problem: more workers usually means fewer days. Plural: ditches. «Ditch» as a verb is informal (ditch a plan = drop it).
In the corpora
- The frightened old horse rears and backs, and drags the cart into the deep ditch: crash!
- Toad: «What carts I shall fling carelessly into the ditch in the wake of my magnificent onset!
- Mole ran off, crept back along a ditch and peeped through the hedge.
- Keep away from storm drains, ditches and culverts, because fast water can sweep a child into a drain pipe.
- He hath digged a pit, and hollowed it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «ditch» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.