escarpment
UK /ɪˈskɑːp.mənt/ · US /ɪˈskɑɹp.mənt/ noun
Forms escarpments
- noun A steep descent or declivity; steep face or edge of a ridge; ground about a fortified place, cut away nearly vertically to prevent hostile approach.
Synonyms
Etymology
Borrowed from French escarpement. By surface analysis, escarp + -ment.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A steep descent or declivity; steep face or edge of a ridge; ground about a fortified place, cut away nearly vertically to prevent hostile approach. See Scarp.
- noun A suffix signifying beginning, beginning to be; as, adolescent, effervescent, etc.
Etymology [Cf. F. escarpement.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “escarpment”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details