drainage ditch
4
3.2
- noun
- /ˈdreɪnɪdʒ dɪtʃ/
:
zanja de drenaje
- Children often play near the drainage ditch where the water flows after storms.
So like he ended up shooting the front tire out is why we lost control, but we ended up going into like this huge drainage ditch and rolled twice.
- So like he ended up shooting the front tire out is why we lost control, but we ended up going into like this huge drainage ditch and rolled twice.
Examples
-
Warm water gurgled in the drainage ditches along the streets.
Fiction book (1996) -
Drainage ditches are commonly installed at the edges of fields to carry runoff.
Academic text (2002) -
Looking down into the drainage ditch, the old man thought: The ox is gone.
Fiction book (1992) -
Upon release, the dog shook and rolled in the drainage ditch.
Fiction book (1996) -
There were her sunglasses floating in the drainage ditch.
Fiction book (2000) -
The road is narrow, with no shoulder and sometimes steep drainage ditches on the sides.
Academic text (1990) -
The drainage ditches haven't been cleaned for decades; the swamps force themselves on the houses and steal grazing ground.
Fiction book (1998) -
In California and Texas, farmers, ranchers, and government workers enthusiastically planted it along waterways and drainage ditches.
Blog text (26) -
What remains are long, narrow fields, divided by sloten (canals used primarily as drainage ditches).
Blog text (11) -
In collaboration with ARS researchers at the Oxford ARS site, the Stoneville team converted one drainage ditch leading into a MSEA lake into a constructed wetland.
Academic text (2002)
Synonyms
122
1.0
A pipe or channel that carries away waste water from a place
57
3.8
A deep narrow waterway that ships can use
44
3.8
A long narrow ditch in the ground used for drainage or protection
27
4.7
A deep narrow channel in the ground formed by flowing water, often after heavy rain
An open channel beside a road that carries rainwater
A narrow ditch dug to carry away water or for defense
How Big
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound 'drainage ditch' is directly compositional: it denotes a ditch whose purpose is drainage, combining 'drainage' (removal of liquid) with 'ditch' (a dug channel). This noun+noun construction and its purpose-specifying logic are cross-linguistically common and therefore predictable to a B1 learner who knows both constituents.
Etymology
The phrase drainage ditch paints a simple picture: a narrow ditch dug so drainage, meaning extra water, can run away from fields or roads. That's why it means 'a narrow channel dug in the ground to carry away excess water or sewage'.