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embankment

[em-bangk-muh nt]
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noun
  1. a bank, mound, dike, or the like, raised to hold back water, carry a roadway, etc.
  2. the action of embanking.
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Origin of embankment

First recorded in 1780–90; embank + -ment
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

hillbreakwatermoundbankcauseway

Examples from the Web for embankment

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • Do you remember that night on the Embankment when we were both so scared of getting married?

    The Foolish Lovers

    St. John G. Ervine

  • There was a crowd on the embankment by the corner of the Ripetta bridge.

  • Katherine watched them as they crossed the street and turned on to the Embankment.

    Audrey Craven

    May Sinclair

  • I think—I think I'll take a walk on the Embankment—by myself.

    The Market-Place

    Harold Frederic

  • The others had barely got beyond the embankment, when they were swept away.

    War from the Inside

    Frederick L. (Frederick Lyman) Hitchcock

British Dictionary definitions for embankment

embankment

noun
  1. a man-made ridge of earth or stone that carries a road or railway or confines a waterwaySee also levee 1
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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

Word Origin and History for embankment

n.

1786, from embank "to enclose with a bank" (1570s; see bank (n.2)) + -ment.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper