scarp
Americannoun
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a line of cliffs formed by the faulting or fracturing of the earth's crust; an escarpment.
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Fortification. an escarp.
verb (used with object)
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scarps,
present (3rd person singular)
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scarped,
past participle, past
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scarping
present participle
noun
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a steep slope, esp one formed by erosion or faulting; escarpment See also cuesta
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fortifications the side of a ditch cut nearest to and immediately below a rampart
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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scarpsimple
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scarpssimple
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have scarpedperfect
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has scarpedperfect
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am scarpingprogressive
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are scarpingprogressive
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is scarpingprogressive
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have been scarpingperfect progressive
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has been scarpingperfect progressive
Past
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scarpedsimple
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had scarpedperfect
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was scarpingprogressive
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were scarpingprogressive
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had been scarpingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of scarp
First recorded in 1580–90, scarp is from the Italian word scarpa a slope. See escarp
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Stewart hasn’t visited the site, but said a large head scarp, which marks the top of a landslide, is visible in photos of the area, “indicating substantial movement” that could have ruptured the pipeline.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 29, 2025
"The conclusion we came to is: don't build right on top of a scarp, or recently active fault. The farther away from a scarp, the lesser the hazard."
From Science Daily ● Dec. 7, 2025
Lobate scarp, with visible grabens on its crest.
From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2023
On the bare dune, a similar scarp formed after nearly 18 hours, but it was less than half the height.
From Science Magazine ● Jun. 15, 2023
And Lee sat and watched helplessly as the zeppelin flew on directly into a scarp of the mountains that rose up before them.
From "The Subtle Knife" by Philip Pullman
The region contains faults, volcanic structures, rifts, scarps, and active subduction and spreading zones, many located at depths that make detailed sonar mapping extremely difficult.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 10, 2026
SMRs form from the same compressional forces that create lobate scarps.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 18, 2026
Earlier work by Watters linked the tectonic forces that produce lobate scarps with recorded moonquakes.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 18, 2026
“Landslide movement continues to manifest at the ground surface in the form of scarps, fissures, grabens/sinkholes, tensional cracking, shear zones and thrust features,” the city’s latest report said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2024
To the east and west were more mountains, great jagged peaks thrusting sharply upward, their scarps piled high with snow and raked by the wind into bladelike edges as sharp as scimitars.
From "The Golden Compass" by Philip Pullman
There, where the scarped cliffside reaches the clouds and the water plunges to the depths of the Grand Canyon, sits one of Norway’s most picturesque villages, Geiranger.
From National Geographic ● Oct. 20, 2023
They were built by preference on hills, the sides of which were scarped and terraced to assist the defence.
From The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead Vol. II by Sir James George Frazer
It was placed upon a platform of limited extent; backed by a precipitous slope, of which the platform was the base; and flanked by two cliffs that scarped off in the opposite direction—downward.
From The Bandolero A Marriage among the Mountains by Mayne Reid
To the east the great scarped rocks forbade an approach, and dense spinous undergrowth filled the surrounding forest.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 11, No. 68, June, 1863 by Various
The hill on which the fort stands is ship-shaped and some miles long, and, from a distance, every inch appears to be scarped and guarded.
From From Sea to Sea Letters of Travel by Rudyard Kipling
A terrible scarping wind, whose very breath was bitterness to flesh and blood, blatant and unresting, filled the valley with a strange voice and life.
From Heriot's Choice A Tale by Rosa Nouchette Carey
Already, on the heights of Montmartre, is a digging and delving; too like a scarping and trenching.
From The French Revolution by Thomas Carlyle
Another feature of the Ziscaberg, already hinted at, is very notable: that of the Moldau skirting its northern base, and scarping the Hill, on that side too, into a precipitous, or very steep condition.
From History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 18 by Thomas Carlyle
Upon this mountain the Russians very strongly established themselves, scarping the heights and constructing formidable breastworks behind which to shelter themselves.
From Under the Ensign of the Rising Sun A Story of the Russo-Japanese War by Savile Lumley
The mountain was so steep that our ponies could only ascend by scarping, zigzag fashion.
From By Veldt and Kopje by W. C. (William Charles) Scully
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
