Green’s Dictionary of Slang

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

1608		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.
1613		Marston Insatiate Countesse I i: I feare none of these [i.e. wooers] will fall into the right Ditch.
1655		Gossips Braule 7: No, thou Ditch of damnation, thous shalt have a Rope and Butter, before thou shalt borrow a Pin of me.
1675		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.
1680		Merry Maid of Islington 4: [as cit. 1608].
1706		J. Dunton Whipping-Post 39: A Whore is a Deep Ditch, and ... her House is the Way to Hell.
1725		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.
a.1768		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.
1772		G. Stevens ‘Transit of Venus’ in Songs Comic and Satyrical 151: Into Ditch Thales fell, with his Telescope geer.
1788		‘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.
1790		‘Bumper Allnight. Esquire’ Honest Fellow [as 1788].
1890		‘Neaniskos’ Priapeia Ep. lxxix 77: Unfortunate Labdace, swears that she can scarce drag her feet along by reason of her ditch.
1962		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.
1980		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.

1871		Cork Examiner 13 Jan. 4/5: That great ditch [...] the Atalantic ocean between the Old and the New Worlds.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.
1915		G. Bronson-Howard God’s Man 211: A blow-off one girl’s giving who’s going across the big ditch – Europe.
1940		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.

1876		Birmingham Dly Post 1 Mar. 6/1: The Suez Canal [...] that unpoetic ditch across the Ishmus of Suez.
1903		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.
1914		Day Book (Chicago) 15 Apr. 23/1: The real boss of the big ditch through Panama will be Captain Hugh Rodman.
1953		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.

1914		‘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.
1917		‘Taffrail’ Sub 88: ‘Charley’s Aunt!’ exclaimed a voice, with every indication of enjoyment. ‘’Ere’s old Bill bin an’ fallen in th’ ditch!’.
1925		(con. WWI) Fraser & Gibbons Soldier and Sailor Words 78: Ditch, The: The sea.
2010		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.

1968		‘Sl. of Watts’ in Current Sl. III:2.
1971		Illinois Legislative Investigating Committee Drug Crisis in Spears (1986).
1980		Ramones ‘Chinese Rock’ 🎵 I’m just digging a Chinese ditch.

6. (US gay) the anus.

1972

B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.

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

1998

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.