escarpment

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“
Through the fissure lavas poured out, and in many places the escarpment is concealed by sheets of lava.

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Definitions (7)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun A steep slope or long cliff that results from erosion or faulting and separates two relatively level areas of differing elevations.
  2. noun A steep slope in front of a fortification.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (2)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples (50)

  • Suddenly on the top of the escarpment, German soldiers. —  THE BANTAM WAR BOOK SERIES
  • More than a week had passed since our second disastrous attempt to climb up the escarpment, and nobody seemed to have any idea what we were going to do next. —  FSF,January2007
  • The trail led them north along the top of the escarpment, and at length they came to a deep cleft carved in the rock by a stream that splashed noisily down. —  The Lord of the Rings
  • Although some way down the low escarpment, their position afforded them an uninterrupted view over the river valley, meadows giving way to marshland, water glinting in the sun. —  AN UNWILLING CONQUEST
  • They lingered to watch hawks soaring over an escarpment, and they argued over whether they had imagined the hawks into being and if so, whose thought it had been. —  StrangeHorizons,July2002
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Etymologies (1)

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from French escarpement, from escarper, escarp: see escarp and -ment.
 

Pronunciations
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/ɛsˈkɑrpmənt/
by American Heritage

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