terrace

[ter-uh s]

noun

a raised level with a vertical or sloping front or sides faced with masonry, turf, or the like, especially one of a series of levels rising one above another.

the top of such a construction, used as a platform, garden, road, etc.

a nearly level strip of land with a more or less abrupt descent along the margin of the sea, a lake, or a river.

the flat roof of a house.

an open, often paved area connected to a house or an apartment house and serving as an outdoor living area; deck.

an open platform, as projecting from the outside wall of an apartment; a large balcony.

a row of houses on or near the top of a slope.

a residential street following the top of a slope.

verb (used with or without object), ter·raced, ter·rac·ing.

to form into or furnish with a terrace or terraces.

Origin of terrace

1505–15; earlier terrasse < Middle French < Old Provençal terrassa < Vulgar Latin *terrācea, feminine of *terrāceus. See terra, -aceous

Related formster·race·less, adjectiveun·ter·raced, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for terraced

Contemporary Examples of terraced

At the center of allegations about a political cover-up is a nondescript Edwardian terraced house in West London.
Alleged U.K. Parliamentary Pedophile Ring Hushed Up for Decades
Nico Hines
July 8, 2014
They showed my mother, laughing on a terraced hill, land stitched with olive trees.
On Yom Kippur, Remember My Palestinian Mother
Samer Badawi
September 10, 2013
“Requiem for the Croppies” Terraced thousands died, shaking scythes at cannon.
Seamus Heaney, 1939-2013: Accessible, Yes, and Beautiful
Jimmy So
August 30, 2013

Historical Examples of terraced

"Tell me about yourself," she commanded, when we were beyond the flights of terraced steps.
The Bacillus of Beauty
Harriet Stark
The fort, with four bastions, terraced and palisaded, has a garrison.
The History of Louisiana
Le Page Du Pratz
The amphitheatre of hills is terraced with olive-orchards and vineyards.
Out-of-Doors in the Holy Land
Henry Van Dyke
The parapets of our terraced roofs were higher than my head.
My Reminiscences
Rabindranath Tagore
The crown of all this terraced glory is the great cathedral.
From a Terrace in Prague
Lieut.-Col. B. Granville Baker

British Dictionary definitions for terraced

terrace

noun

a horizontal flat area of ground, often one of a series in a slope

a row of houses, usually identical and having common dividing walls, or the street onto which they face
(cap when part of a street name)Grosvenor Terrace

a paved area alongside a building, serving partly as a garden

a balcony or patio

the flat roof of a house built in a Spanish or Oriental style

a flat area bounded by a short steep slope formed by the down-cutting of a river or by erosion

(usually plural)

unroofed tiers around a football pitch on which the spectators stand
the spectators themselves

verb

(tr) to make into or provide with a terrace or terraces

Derived Formsterraceless, adjective

Word Origin for terrace

C16: from Old French terrasse, from Old Provençal terrassa pile of earth, from terra earth, from Latin

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 terraced

terrace

1510s, "gallery, portico, balcony," later "flat, raised place for walking" (1570s), from Middle French terrace, from Old French terrasse "platform (built on or supported by a mound of earth)," from Vulgar Latin *terracea, fem. of *terraceus "earthen, earthy," from Latin terra "earth, land" (see terrain). As a natural formation in geology, attested from 1670s.

terraced in Medicine

terrace

[tĕr′ĭs]

v.

To suture in several rows, as when closing a wound through a considerable thickness of tissue.