diguer

A rare technical verb meaning to build a dike or embankment along something (a river, coastline). In modern French this sense is almost always expressed instead with the far more common endiguer (to dam up, contain — used both literally and figuratively, as in endiguer une crise).

• Les ingénieurs ont digué le fleuve à cet endroit. — Engineers dammed the river at this spot.
• Il faudrait diguer cette partie de la côte contre l'érosion. — This part of the coast would need to be embanked against erosion.
• La commune a digué le ruisseau après les inondations. — The town built up the stream's banks after the flooding.

A learner who wants the common, everyday word — including the figurative 'to stem/contain' (a crisis, a flood of something) — should use endiguer, not diguer; the plain diguer is rare even for engineers.

Often confused with endiguer.