berm
/bɜː(ɹ)m/ noun, verb
Forms berms berming bermed
- noun A narrow ledge or shelf, as along the top or bottom of a slope.
- noun A raised bank or path, especially the bank of a canal opposite the towpath.
- noun (mining, Australia) One of the flat terraces on the slope of an open-pit mine.
- noun A terrace or shelf of sand along a beach, formed above the high tide water level by wave action. “On some beaches, the berm grows higher in summer and flattens out in the rougher winter seas.”
- noun A long mound or bank of earth, used especially as a barrier or to provide insulation. “A berm separates the Moroccan-controlled and Polisario-controlled parts of Western Sahara.”
- noun (mining, US, Canada) A small wall along the edge of a bench of an open-pit mine, intended to prevent items falling over the crest.
- noun A ledge between the parapet and the moat in a fortification.
- noun (Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Zealand) A strip of land between a street and sidewalk.
- verb To provide something with a berm
Synonyms
heelpath bench bench floor windrow besidewalk boulevard boulevard strip city easement common county strip curb lawn curb strip devil strip/devil's strip/devilstrip drivestrip/drive strip easement extension lawn furniture zone grass bay grassplot hellstrip shoulder
Etymology
From Dutch berm (“strip of roadside grass, verge”), probably via French berme, from Middle Dutch barm, baerm, barem (“verge, bank”), from Old Dutch *barm, from Proto-West Germanic *barm, from Proto-Germanic *barmaz (“edge, border, seam”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun A narrow shelf or path between the bottom of a parapet and the ditch.
- noun A ledge at the bottom of a bank or cutting, to catch earth that may roll down the slope, or to strengthen the bank.
Etymology [F. berme, of German origin; cf. G. brame, bräme, border, akin to E. brim.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “berm”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details