earthwork
[urth-wurk]
- excavation and piling of earth in connection with an engineering operation.
- Military. a construction formed chiefly of earth for protection against enemy fire, used in both offensive and defensive operations.
- an artistic work that consists of a large-scale alteration or modification of an area of land in a configuration designed by an artist or of an artist's sculptural installation, as in a museum or gallery, of soil, rock, or similar elemental materials.
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Origin of earthwork
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words for earthwork
dam, barricade, gully, dike, trough, gorge, moat, pit, foxhole, waterway, reinforcement, fortress, citadel, breakwater, mound, bank, earthwork, bastion, ridge, fenceExamples from the Web for earthwork
Contemporary Examples of earthwork
The mask also points to how early Smithson came to the main motif of his most famous work, the “Spiral Jetty” earthwork from 1970.
Historical Examples of earthwork
A part of the earthwork can still be seen in the garden of a Hockingport residence.
Chronicles of Border WarfareAlexander Scott Withers
The road bed may be shaped in connection with the other earthwork.
American Rural HighwaysT. R. Agg
From the fuss it was apparent that the abattis and earthwork had succumbed.
The Long RollMary Johnston
Along the brow of this hill upon which we are standing was an earthwork.
IT and Other StoriesGouverneur Morris
We concentrated our guns on him as he crouched behind this earthwork.
The ClansmanThomas Dixon
earthwork
- excavation of earth, as in engineering construction
- a fortification made of earth
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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 earthwork
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper