berm
[burm]
- Also berme. Fortification. a horizontal surface between the exterior slope of a rampart and the moat.
- Also called bench. any level strip of ground at the summit or sides, or along the base, of a slope.
- Also called backshore, beach berm. a nearly flat back portion of a beach, formed of material deposited by the action of the waves.
- Chiefly Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. the bank of a canal or the shoulder of a road.
- Chiefly Alaska. a mound of snow or dirt, as formed when clearing land.
- a bank of earth placed against an exterior wall or walls of a house or other building as protection against extremes of temperature.
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- to cover or protect with a berm: The side walls were bermed to a height of three feet.
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Origin of berm
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for berm
Contemporary Examples
As I reach the berm of sand, tile and stucco that marked a kind of front line, bodies are being piled on carts in the street.
Historical Examples
In fortification, a word sometimes used for berm (which see).
The Sailor's Word-BookWilliam Henry Smyth
With the help of the ladder they ascended the berm and measured the height of the wall.
Forty-one years in IndiaFrederick Sleigh Roberts
BERM (probably a variant of “brim”), a narrow ledge of ground, generally the level banks of a river.
In parts of Egypt the whole area reached by the Nile is included in the berm.
The minimum breadth of the berm was laid down as three feet.
The History of the 51st (Highland) Division 1914-1918Frederick William Bewsher
berm
berme
- a narrow path or ledge at the edge of a slope, road, or canal
- NZ the grass verge of a suburban street, usually kept mown
- fortifications a narrow path or ledge between a moat and a rampart
- military a man-made ridge of sand, designed as an obstacle to tanks, which, in crossing it, have to expose their vulnerable underparts
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Word Origin
C18: from French berme, from Dutch berm, probably from Old Norse barmr brim
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for berm
n.
"narrow ledge," 1729, from French berme (17c.), from Old Dutch baerm "edge of a dike," probably related to brim (q.v.). In U.S., 19c., also the name for the bank of a canal opposite the tow path.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
berm
[bûrm]
- A nearly horizontal or landward-sloping portion of a beach formed by the deposition of sediment by storm waves. A beach may have no berm at all, or it may have more than one berm.
- A narrow man-made ledge or shelf, as along the top or bottom of a slope.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.