To ditch something means to abandon it or get rid of it, often quickly or without much ceremony. When you ditch your plans to go to the movies because something better comes up, you're dropping those plans. If a pilot has to ditch an airplane, they're making an emergency landing in water. Students might ditch their heavy backpacks as soon as they get home, tossing them aside with relief.

The word often carries a sense of leaving something behind deliberately. You might ditch an old, broken toy, or ditch a route that's taking too long. Sometimes people use it for more serious situations: ditching a friend means abandoning them when they need you, which can damage trust and friendship.

As a noun, a ditch is a long, narrow channel dug into the ground, usually to carry water away from roads or fields. Farmers dig ditches to drain their land. Roads often have ditches alongside them to prevent flooding. If a car slides off an icy road, it might end up in a ditch.

The expression “last-ditch effort” means a final, desperate attempt to succeed when everything else has failed, like the last line of defense.