escarp

American  

[ih-skahrp] / ɪˈskɑrp /

noun

1. Fortification. the inner slope or wall of the ditch surrounding a rampart.

2. any similar steep slope.

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verb (used with object)

1. to make into an escarp; give a steep slope to; furnish with escarps.

escarp British  

/ ɪˈskɑːp /

noun

1. fortifications the inner side of the ditch separating besiegers and besieged Compare counterscarp

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verb

1. a rare word for scarp

Etymology

Origin of escarp

1680–90; < French, Middle French escarpe < Italian scarpa < Germanic; see scarp

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

escarp

The eastern front has an escarp fourteen feet high cut in the lava, and well flanked by the caponnière defending the entrances, mounting four guns.

From The Life of Gordon, Volume I by Demetrius Charles Boulger

A precipitous steep; as either the escarp or counterscarp of a fort: but a bank or the face of a hill may also be scarped.

From The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by Sir Edward Belcher

It appears that they will be essential to destroy both the ditch-flanking arrangements of forts and the escarp or other permanent obstacle beyond the ditch.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 6 "Foraminifera" to "Fox, Edward" by Various

His mines will now be turned to a new purpose, viz. to breach the counterscarp and afterwards the escarp.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 6 "Foraminifera" to "Fox, Edward" by Various

In Vauban’s works, and those of most other engineers, there was generally a postern giving access to the floor of the main ditch, in the centre of the curtain escarp.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 5 "Gassendi, Pierre" to "Geocentric" by Various

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