escarpment

[ ih-skahrp-muhnt ]
See synonyms for escarpment on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. Geology. a long, precipitous, clifflike ridge of land, rock, or the like, commonly formed by faulting or fracturing of the earth's crust.: Compare scarp (def. 1).

  2. ground cut into an escarp around a fortification or defensive position.

Origin of escarpment

1
From the French word escarpement, dating back to 1795–1805. See escarp, -ment

Words Nearby escarpment

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use escarpment in a sentence

  • The cave being almost everywhere open to the sky, the smoke issued freely, blackening the curved escarpment.

    Toilers of the Sea | Victor Hugo
  • Silently he went on climbing the escarpment, digging into the rough rock.

    The Judas Valley | Gerald Vance

British Dictionary definitions for escarpment

escarpment

/ (ɪˈskɑːpmənt) /


noun
    • the long continuous steep face of a ridge or plateau formed by erosion; scarp

    • any steep slope, such as one resulting from faulting

  1. a steep artificial slope immediately in front of the rampart of a fortified place

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for escarpment

escarpment

[ ĭ-skärpmənt ]


  1. A steep slope or long cliff formed by erosion or by vertical movement of the Earth's crust along a fault. Escarpments separate two relatively level areas of land. The term is often used interchangeably with scarp but is more accurately associated with cliffs produced by erosional processes rather than those produced by faulting.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.