Speakur

Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

put one's finger in the dyke

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.30 in modern English

Syllables
put one's fin-ger in the dyke
IPA
39
Scrabble Score
22
Letters
2
Syllables
15
Unique Chars

Meaning

verb

To attempt to temporarily stop or stem an impending disaster, particularly when the effort is too small to fully address the scale of the problem.

Informal

Usage

Inflected Forms

puts one's finger in the dyke (present, singular) putting one's finger in the dyke (participle, present)

Phrases

finger in the dyke

Frequently Paired Words

finger in the dyke stem the tide

Synonyms

put one's finger in a hole

Questions

What does put one's finger in the dyke mean?
To attempt to temporarily stop or stem an impending disaster, particularly when the effort is too small to fully address the scale of the problem.

How to pronounce put one's finger in the dyke

  1. Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “put one's finger in the dyke”.
  2. Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling () so you know which sounds to aim for.
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