See Also: dyke(1)(dictionary)
dyke(2)(dictionary)
dyke(dictionary)
dyke(dictionary)
Dyke (as used in expressions)(encyclopedia)
Offa's Dyke(dictionary)
Van Dyke, Dick(encyclopedia)
dyke-grave(dictionary)
Offa's Dyke(encyclopedia)
Earls Dyke Beach(tourism)

Public spending (finance) and dyke(1) (iou)


Public spending (finance)


Government expenditure (on Health, Education, social Security, defense, etc.).





dyke(1) (iou)



dyke noun1. Also dike. ME.
[Old Norse dik, diki or (branch II) Middle Low German dik dam, Middle Dutch dijc ditch, pool, mound, dam (Dutch dijk dam): see DITCH noun.]
I. Something dug out.
A long narrow excavation, a ditch (as a boundary-marker, defensive measure, etc.). ME-L16.
Any hollow dug in the ground; a pit, cave, etc. ME-L15.
A hollow dug out to hold or conduct water; a drainage ditch; any watercourse or channel. LME.
Pope Thames, The King of dykes!
A lavatory. slang. E20.
II. Something built up.
a. The wall of a city; a fortification. ME-M16.
b. A low wall of turf or stone serving as a division or enclosure. LME.
R. Sibbald The Ruins of a dry-stone dyke.
A bank formed by throwing up the earth from a ditch. L15.
A (raised) causeway. L15.
An embankment, long ridge, or dam against flooding, esp. as built in the Netherlands against the sea. M17.
J. A. Michener He might by building a dyke hold back the wadi and prevent it from washing away the fields.
fig. A barrier, an obstacle, a defence. L18.
Byron He there builds up a formidable dyke Between his own and others' intellect.
a. Mining. A fissure filled with rock; a fault. dial. L18.
b. Geology. A sheet of rock filling a fissure; esp. a mass of igneous rock that has intruded upwards through strata, sometimes showing as a ridge at the surface. E19.
Comb.: dyke-reeve [perh. alt. of DYKE-GRAVE] Hist. an officer who had charge of the drains and sea banks in fenland counties.