ditch v. especially in the phrase ditch in line, to unfairly take a place in front of others (in a line); to cut or butt (in line); to jump a queue. Editorial Note: Also infrequently given as dish. This term is particularly common in Ohio. Political commentator and Ohioan John Kasich frequently uses the term in the discussion of immigration. Doug Wilson has speculated that this form of ditch is a variant of dish defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “to ‘do for’, defeat completely, ruin; to cheat, circumvent,” which dates to at least as early as 1798. However, this and other theories are unproven. Thanks to Chris Waigl for bring this word to my attention and Steve Hartman Keiser for first mentioning it on the American Dialect Society email list. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
Enthusiastic book recommendations! Martha’s savoring the biography of Alexander von Humboldt, the 19th-century explorer, polymath, and naturalist who revolutionized our understanding of nature and predicted the effects of human activity on...