What does ditch mean?
A ditch is a long, narrow channel dug into the ground, most often to carry away rainwater, drain fields, or mark a boundary. Ditches line roadsides and fields across the countryside, and they have been essential to agriculture since ancient times. Beyond this concrete sense, 'ditch' has developed lively figurative uses as a verb: to ditch something is to abandon it abruptly, whether a plan, an old jacket, or a friend who fails to show up, and pilots speak of ditching an aircraft when making an emergency landing on water. The word is informal in these figurative senses, carrying a breezy, slightly careless tone that makes it a staple of casual conversation. Its history is also memorable: the idiom 'last-ditch effort' preserves the image of a final trench dug as a last line of defence before defeat.
A long narrow trench or channel dug in the ground, especially one used for drainage or placed alongside a road or field.
"Rainwater collected in the ditch beside the lane."
In British English, 'the ditch' can refer colloquially to the area beyond the roadside hedge.
To abandon or discard someone or something suddenly; to make an emergency landing on water; or to dig a ditch.
"He ditched his old car rather than pay for repairs."
Informal in the sense of abandonment; the aviation sense is standard technical usage.
Regular plural: ditch becomes ditches, adding -es because of the ch ending.
"The farmers cleared out the ditches before spring planting."
The phrase 'last-ditch' comes from military history: the final defensive trench dug before surrender.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of ditch
Ditch comes from Old English dīc, meaning a bank or embankment as well as a dug channel, reflecting how earth dug from a trench formed a raised mound alongside it. It is related to Dutch dijk and German Deich, which came to mean specifically a flood-defence embankment, giving English the borrowed word 'dyke'. The sense of abandoning something arose in mid-20th-century American slang, possibly influenced by the notion of dumping something into a ditch.
Related word forms
How ditch is actually used
As a verb meaning 'to abandon', 'ditch' is informal but very common in everyday speech; it carries a slightly dismissive connotation. The aviation sense ('to ditch a plane') is technical.
Easily confused with ditch
A dyke is an embankment built to keep water out, while a ditch is a channel dug to carry water away.