escarpment

noun

Geology. a long, precipitous, clifflike ridge of land, rock, or the like, commonly formed by faulting or fracturing of the earth's crust. Compare scarp¹ ( def 1 ).

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

Origin:
1795–1805; < French escarpement. See escarp, -ment

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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Link To escarpment

Collins

World English Dictionary

escarpment (ɪˈskɑːpmənt)

—n
1.	a. the long continuous steep face of a ridge or plateau formed by erosion; scarp
	b. any steep slope, such as one resulting from faulting
2.	a steep artificial slope immediately in front of the rampart of a fortified place

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Relevant Questions

What Are Escarpments?

00:10

Escarpment is always a great word to know.

So is leaching. Does it mean:

to dissolve out soluble constituents from ashes and soil by percolation

single bed of sedimentary rock, consisting of one kind of matter representing continuous deposition

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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

escarpment

1802, from Fr. escarpment, from escarper "make into a steep slope," from escarpe "slope," from It. scarpa (see scarp).

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage

Science Dictionary

escarpment

(ĭ-skärp'mənt) Pronunciation Key
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.

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Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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Example sentences

It also appears to be not as steep as the opposite escarpment.

We began picking our way up the rippling sandstone escarpment, now turning red

in the afternoon sun.

The top of the escarpment was composed of crumbling columns of hardened lava,

the bottom a steep incline of rock and scree.

They are standing on the escarpment, by a sharp drop.