escarpmentn.
/ɪˈskɑːpmənt/ The condition of being escarped; hence concrete.
1. Ground cut into the form of an escarp for the purpose of fortification.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > defence > defensive work(s) > earthwork or rampart > [noun] > side of ditch nearest to parapet
scarp1589
scarf1591
escarp1688
escarpment1802
scarpment1861
1802 C. James New Mil. Dict. Escarpment: see Declivity.
1847 B. Disraeli Tancred III. vi. i. 141 The living rock..formed the impregnable bulwarks and escarpments.
1860 W. H. Russell My Diary in India 1858–9 I. 82 The old Porto Batavo walls still surround the town, with moat and escarpments.
1882 Luck of Ladysmede I. 93 From which a natural escarpment swept down towards the river.
2.
a. Geology. ‘The abrupt face or cliff of a ridge or hill range’ (Page). Also attributive.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > land > landscape > high land > cliff > [noun]
cliffOE
cleoa1300
cleevec1300
rochec1300
clougha1400
heugha1400
brackc1530
clift1567
perpendicular1604
precipice1607
precipe1615
precipit1623
abrupt1624
scar1673
bluff1687
rock wall1755
krantz1785
linn1799
scarp1802
scaur1805
escarpment1815
rock face1820
escarp1856
hag1868
glint1906
scarping1909
stone-cliff1912
ledra1942
the world > the earth > land > landscape > high land > slope > [noun] > steep
cliffOE
cleevec1300
hangingc1400
braea1500
steep1555
steepness1585
proclivity1645
upright1712
sliddera1793
snab1797
scarp1802
escarpment1815
shin1817
escarp1856
hag1868
jump-off1873
inface1896
fault-scarp1897
scarping1909
fault-line scarp1911
steephead1918
jump-up1927
1815 R. Bakewell Introd. Geol. (ed. 2) iv. 70 It is only on the sides of the nearly perpendicular peaks and escarpments that the bare rock is visible.
1839 C. Darwin in R. Fitzroy & C. Darwin Narr. Surv. Voy. H.M.S. Adventure & Beagle III. ix. 193 The view..is generally bounded by the escarpment of another plain.
1870 J. Yeats Nat. Hist. Commerce 23 Plains of New Red Sandstone and Lias, succeeded by two great escarpments, the edges of table-lands.
1880 S. Haughton Six Lect. Physical Geogr. v. 216 The western, or Libyan chain, is merely the escarpment edge of the plateau of the Sahara.
b. transferred.
ΚΠ
1853 E. K. Kane U.S. Grinnell Exped. viii. 56 A naked escarpment of ice, twelve hundred feet high,..protruding nearly half a mile into the sea.
1856 J. G. Whittier Panorama 2 [The] long escarpment of half-crumbled wall.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1891; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1802