Green’s Dictionary of Slang

ditch n.

1. the vagina; also a term of abuse to a woman (see cit. 1655).

[UK]Dekker Honest Whore Pt 2 (1630) III i: Here, Madam, is the suruey [...] with euery Medow pasture, Plough-land, Cony-borough, Fish-pond, hedge, ditch, and bush that stands in it.
[UK]Marston Insatiate Countesse I i: I feare none of these [i.e. wooers] will fall into the right Ditch.
[UK]Gossips Braule 7: No, thou Ditch of damnation, thous shalt have a Rope and Butter, before thou shalt borrow a Pin of me.
[UK]T. Duffet Psyche Debauch’d III i: When love thus storms a Fort, and enters by force, he plunders freely, and imposes what conditions he will; but when he comes sneaking, and creeping like a Boy after a Butterfly, Ten to one but she flies off, and he falls into the next Ditch; for where love is in motion, like Water thrown on the ground, ’twill fall into the first hollow place it finds.
[UK]Merry Maid of Islington 4: [as cit. 1608].
J. Dunton Whipping-Post 39: A Whore is a Deep Ditch, and ... her House is the Way to Hell.
[UK]B. Mandeville An Essay upon Whoring iii: From Your stopping up those Drains and Sluices we had to let out Lewdness [...] Those Ramparts and Ditches within which the Virtue of our Wives and daughters lay so conveniently intrench’d.
[UK]Rochester ‘A Panegyrick upon Nelly’ in Works of Rochester (1721) 67: Fine gilded ’Scutcheons did the Herse enrich, / To celebrate this Martyr of the Ditch.
[UK]G. Stevens ‘Transit of Venus’ in Songs Comic and Satyrical 151: Into Ditch Thales fell, with his Telescope geer.
[Ire] ‘The Gobbio’ Chap Book Songs 7: The Champion came as a champion should, / In two platoons he kneeled, stopped and stood, / He filled up the ditch with a faggot of strength, / And rammed his charge with a rammer of length.
[UK]‘Bumper Allnight. Esquire’ Honest Fellow [as 1788].
[UK]‘Neaniskos’ Priapeia Ep. lxxix 77: Unfortunate Labdace, swears that she can scarce drag her feet along by reason of her ditch.
[US]B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 115: Even a cold-blooded dope fiend need a second chance. / Turn him on and he’ll talk some shit, / suck a pussy and give a ditch dick a fit.
[US]Maledicta IV:2 (Winter) 182: The simplest words in common use for this ‘nasty thing’ [...] are those accepting the female sexual apparatus as a simple receptacle. These include [...] furrow, ditch, gutter.

2. the Atlantic Ocean.

[Ire]Cork Examiner 13 Jan. 4/5: That great ditch [...] the Atalantic ocean between the Old and the New Worlds.
[UK]J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.
[US]G. Bronson-Howard God’s Man 211: A blow-off one girl’s giving who’s going across the big ditch – Europe.
[UK]Derby Dly Teleg. 30 July 6/2: ‘Atlantic Ditch’ [...] Goering referred to aprehension innthe United States about a German invasion. With a ‘ditch’ of over 3,000 miles on one side, and another of 5,000 miles on the other the united States could not possibly be invaded.

3. (US) a canal.

[UK]Birmingham Dly Post 1 Mar. 6/1: The Suez Canal [...] that unpoetic ditch across the Ishmus of Suez.
[UK]Portsmouth Eve. News 6 Feb. 3/8: It will probably be many years yet ere ther ‘ditch’ connecting the North Sea and the Baltic earns dividends.
[US]Day Book (Chicago) 15 Apr. 23/1: The real boss of the big ditch through Panama will be Captain Hugh Rodman.
[US]F. Paley Rumble on the Docks (1955) 111: There’s a stiff in the ditch! [Ibid.] 112: The ditch stank [...] The water was black and slopped off the rakes and the diver.

4. the sea, esp. the English Channel or the North Sea.

[UK]‘Bartimeus’ ‘The Greater Love’ in Naval Occasions 231: Oars all ready, lads! Stan’ by to pull like bloody ’ell – there’s two of ’em in the ditch.
[UK]‘Taffrail’ Sub 88: ‘Charley’s Aunt!’ exclaimed a voice, with every indication of enjoyment. ‘’Ere’s old Bill bin an’ fallen in th’ ditch!’.
[UK](con. WWI) Fraser & Gibbons Soldier and Sailor Words 78: Ditch, The: The sea.
[UK]Eve. Standard 28 May 7/3: More than two centuries after a frenchman [...] first crossed the Channel under one balloon, an American today safely floated over ‘The Ditch’ suspended from dozens.

5. (drugs) the inside of the elbow, used for injections of narcotics.

[US] ‘Sl. of Watts’ in Current Sl. III:2.
[US]Illinois Legislative Investigating Committee Drug Crisis in Spears (1986).
[US]Ramones ‘Chinese Rock’ 🎵 I’m just digging a Chinese ditch.

6. (US gay) the anus.

[US]B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.

7. (Aus./NZ) the Tasman Sea, that part of the Pacific Ocean between Australia and New Zealand.

Google Groups: alt.tv.xena-subtext 15 Jan. 🌐 Unfortunately my finances over the next couple of months will only take me as far as the Auckland Hero Parade, not over the ditch to Sydders.

In phrases

in the ditch (adj.) (US)

1. impoverished, at the bottom of the social ladder.

[US]E. Torres Carlito’s Way 63: You can be broke in [...] China where everybody is in the ditch.

2. extremely drunk [the image of a drunk driver steering off the road and into a ditch].

[US] P. Munro Sl. U.
[US]K. Kainulainen ‘University Euphemisms in Calif. Today’ 🌐 A big, a very big, part of the euphemistic expressions in university students’ language have something to do with drinking, throwing up or sex. [...] ‘Bobo’, ‘blasted’ and ‘to be in the ditch’ are all used instead of ‘drunk’.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

ditch pig (n.)

a derog. term for an unattractive, fat woman.

[US]Sublime ‘STP’ 🎵 And if she made off with my last clean rig / I’m gonna kill that fucking ditch pig.
[UK]Roger’s Profanisaurus 3 in Viz 98 Oct. 10: ditch pig n. An affectionate, lighthearted epithet for an ugly fat girl.
posting at SportsFilter 27 Jan. 🌐 She’s just a florida ditch pig getting too much attention.

In phrases

keep it between the ditches (also put it between the ditches)

(US) a phr. of farewell; ‘it’ being a metaphorical vehicle.

Steve Earle Shut Up and Die like an Aviator [live concert] We’re gonna give you one to put it between the ditches by. We want you to be careful.
[US]C. Cook Robbers (2001) 133: He told her to be careful and to keep it between the ditches.
[US]C. Cook ‘Heresies’ in Screen Door Jesus 127: Keep it between the ditches, son.