Breakwater vs Dyke - What's the difference?
breakwater | dyke |
a construction in or around a harbour designed to break the force of the sea and to provide shelter for vessels lying inside
(nautical) a low bulkhead across the forecastle deck of a ship which diverts water breaking over the bows into the scuppers
On beaches: a wooden or concrete barrier, usually perpendicular to the shore, intended to prevent the movement of sand along a coast.
(Australia, slang) A toilet.
(UK) A ditch (rarely also refers to similar natural features, and to one natural valley, Devil's Dyke, Sussex, due to a legend that the devil dug it).
(UK, mainly S England) An earthwork consisting of a ditch and a parallel rampart.
(British) An embankment to prevent inundation, or a causeway.
(UK, mainly Scotland and N England) A mound of earth, stone- or turf-faced, sometimes topped with hedge planting, or a hedge alone, used as a fence.
(UK, mainly Scotland and N England) A dry-stone wall usually forming a boundary to a wood, field or garden.
(British, geology) A body of once molten igneous rock that was injected into older rocks in a manner that crosses bedding planes.
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As nouns the difference between breakwater and dyke
is that breakwater is a construction in or around a harbour designed to break the force of the sea and to provide shelter for vessels lying inside while dyke is or dyke can be (slang|pejorative) a lesbian, particularly one who appears macho or acts in a macho manner this word has been reclaimed, by some, as politically empowering (see usage notes).breakwater
English
Noun
(en noun)Anagrams
*dyke
English
(wikipedia dyke)Etymology 1
Variant of (dike).Noun
(en noun)- 1977 , In Cubbaroo's dim distant past
They built a double dyke.
Back to back in the yard it stood
An architectural dream in wood''
— Ian Slack-Smith, ''The Passing of the Twin Seater'', from ''The Cubbaroo Tales'', 1977. Quoted in ''Aussie Humour , Macmillan, 1988, ISBN 0-7251-0553-4, page 235.
