ditch (dich)

[Early mod. E. also ditche, ditheist (dī'the-ist), n. [As ditheism + -ist.] diche, dyche; it is also called a fo or moat, and is dug round the rampart or wall between the scarp and the counterscarp. See cut under castle. For the i make Dyches in the Erthe alle aboute in the Halle, depe to the Knee, and the i do pave hem: and whan Mandeville, Travels, p. 29. the i wil ete, the i gon there in and sytten there. Thou art no company for an honest dog, And so we'll leave thee to a ditch , thy destiny. Fletcher ( and another ), False One, iii. 2. The subsoil [in drainage) must be carefully examined by digging test-holes in various places, and also by taking advantage of any quarries, deep ditches , or other cuttings in the proximity. 2. Any narrow open pa age for water on the surface of the ground. Encyc. Brit ., I. 332. Takes no more care thence-forth to those effects, But lets the stream run where his Ditch directs. Sylvester , tr. of Du Bartas's Weeks, i. 7. It was characteristic of mining nomenclature that the stream of pure swift-running water which formed this peninsula, taken from the infant Arkansas,formed this To shake; tremble: same as didder1. Mackay. dither (dith'er), n. [ vibration. The range of the reciprocation of the tool is so small that it is not much more than a vibration or dither . The Engineer, LXV. 163. dithering-gra (dith'er-ing-grås), n. Quaking-gra , Briza media . dithionic (dith-i-on'ik), a. [ δι- , two-, + θεῖον , sulphur, +-on-ic.] In chem ., an epithet applied to an acid (H2S206) formerly called hyposulphuric acid. It is a dibasic acid which cannot be isolated in the pure state, but forms crystallizable salts. Dithyrat (dith'i-rä), n. pl. [NL.,