Escarpment

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Escarpment \Es*carp"ment\, n. [Cf. F. escarpement.]
     A steep descent or declivity; steep face or edge of a ridge;
     ground about a fortified place, cut away nearly vertically to
     prevent hostile approach. See {Scarp}.
     [1913 Webster]



From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  escarpment
       n 1: a long steep slope or cliff at the edge of a plateau or
            ridge; usually formed by erosion [syn: {scarp}]
       2: a steep artificial slope in front of a fortification [syn: {escarp},
           {scarp}, {protective embankment}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  65 Moby Thesaurus words for "escarpment":
     abatis, advanced work, balistraria, bank, banquette,
     barbed-wire entanglement, barbican, barricade, barrier, bartizan,
     bastion, battlement, bluff, breastwork, bulwark, casemate,
     cheval-de-frise, circumvallation, cliff, contravallation,
     counterscarp, crag, curtain, demibastion, dike, drawbridge,
     earthwork, enclosure, entanglement, escarp, face, fence, fieldwork,
     fortalice, fortification, glacis, loophole, lunette, machicolation,
     mantelet, merlon, mound, outwork, palisade, palisades, parados,
     parapet, portcullis, postern gate, precipice, rampart, ravelin,
     redan, redoubt, sally port, scar, scarp, sconce, steep, stockade,
     tenaille, vallation, vallum, wall, work