scarp
UK /skɑːp/ · US /skɑɹp/ noun, verb
Forms scarps scarping scarped
- noun The steep artificial slope below a fort's parapet.
- noun (geology) A cliff at the edge of a plateau or ridge caused by erosion or faulting; the steeper side of an escarpment.
- verb (earth science, geography, transitive) to cut, scrape, erode, or otherwise make into a scarp or escarpment “to scarp the face of a ditch or a rock”
Synonyms
Etymology
Apheretic form of escarp. Doublet of escarp.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A band in the same position as the bend sinister, but only half as broad as the latter.
- noun The slope of the ditch nearest the parapet; the escarp.
- noun A steep descent or declivity.
- verb To cut down perpendicularly, or nearly so; as, to scarp the face of a ditch or a rock.
Etymology [OF. escharpe. See 2d Scarf.]
Etymology [Aphetic form of Escarp.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “scarp”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details