earthworkn.

OE Old Eng. Hexateuch: Exod. (Claud.) i. 14 Ða Egyptiscan hatedon þa Ysrahelyscan & swencton hi, & to yrmþe heora lyf gelæddon mid heardum weorcum clames & tigelan & mid ælcon þeowdome, þe hi on eorþweorcum [L. terrae operibus] gehynede wæron.

1633 T. Stafford Pacata Hibernia ii. xv. 216 The Enemy had ground sufficient..to cast up new earth workes.

1673 J. Ray Observ. Journey Low-countries 102 This City is as well fortified as the Situation of it will permit, besides the Wall, being encompassed round with good Earthworks and Trenches after the modern fashion.

1702 J. Northleigh Topogr. Descr. i. 73 Formerly it was sufficiently defended with the Sea-Waters about it, but now made much more defensible by the Earthworks and Brickworks added to it.

1779 J. Strutt Chron. Eng. I. v. ii. 317 The earthworks yet remain near Tong-Mill.

1830 C. Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 278 The remains of an ancient entrenchment..This earth-work was evidently once of considerable extent.

1868 A. W. Kinglake Invasion of Crimea III. ii. 16 The Russians had thrown up strong earthworks on the banks of the river.

1901 A. A. Grace Tales of Dying Race 84 The whole earthwork was overgrown with maidenhair fern and lycopodium, in token of the return of peace.

1937 R. Byron Road to Oxiana i. 12 I stand on the Martinengo bastion, a gigantic earthwork faced with cut stone and guarded by a rock-hewn moat forty feet below.

1995 F. R. Shivers Walking in Baltimore 136 To fortify the city, Secretary of State James Monroe sent Capt. Sam Babcock to place earthworks and six guns..on Middle Branch behind Fort McHenry.

1796 W. Chapman Rep. Drainage Low Grounds 9 The expence of the whole, of the masonry, and earthwork, and of the land below Burlington road, will..cost rather less than 4,400l.

1816 J. Sutcliffe Treat. on Canals & Reservoirs 118 The masonry and earth work of this canal were the worst executed of any I ever saw.

1853 C. Tomlinson Cycl. Useful Arts (1854) II. 550/2 The inclination of the earth-works, whether for excavations or embankments, must be determined mainly by their height.

1862 Chambers's Encycl. IV. 27/2 In the formation of canals, railways, and other roads, embankment and excavation go hand in hand, and, under the name of earthwork, form..a vast branch of industry.

1911 Daily Colonist (Victoria, Brit. Columbia) 30 Apr. 1/7 Considerable heavy rock work here presents itself, as well as a fair amount of medium earthwork.

1955 Times 30 June 13/5 It is easy to forget that the gigantic earthworks of the railway age..were performed in the main by spade and barrow, horse and cart.

2005 J. MacGregor Sunday Money iii. 60 Coming around the track we see the huge earthworks of the north turns, the white concrete wall of the speedway above them.

1968 N.Y. Times 19 May d35/4 Oppenheim broke through to actual earthworks in 1967, when he carved a 5-foot wedge out of a borrowed mountain in Oakland, Cal., and lined it with translucent Plexiglass.

1977 Washington Post 30 Oct. l3/1 The makers of ‘earthworks’, in trading brushes for bulldozers, also traded the illusion of landscape for real earth, real light and real space.

1986 C. P. Christ Diving Deep & Surfacing (ed. 2) viii. 125 Women artists like Margaret Hicks and..Ree Marton created earthwork sculptures—monumental outdoor pieces using earth and natural materials.

2002 S. Boettger Earthworks viii. 200/2 Smithson and Holt ventured to Utah's Great Salt Lake in search of a site on which to construct an earthwork.