Merriam-Webster's Collegiate® Dictionary, 11th Edition
DIKE
I. noun see: ditch
Date: 13th century
an artificial watercourse ; ditch ,
2. a bank usually of earth constructed to control or confine water ; levee , a barrier preventing passage especially of something undesirable,
3. a raised causeway, a tabular body of igneous rock that has been injected while molten into a fissure,
II. transitive verb (diked; diking)
Date: 14th century
to surround or protect with a dike, to drain by a dike, diker noun see: dyke