scarp

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“
Halfway up the scarp was a dark horizontal line of bushes, something like a hedge.

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Definitions (14)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun An escarpment.
  2. transitive verb To cut or make into an escarpment.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (7)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (2)

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Examples (50)

  • In one riot of which he gives an account, his lodging was beset, and for a time he was in as much peril “as a grenadier on a counter-scarp.” Still he went on writing pamphlets, and lobbying members of Parliament. —  Daniel Defoe
  • There, on the farther side, the dip slope, the hills sank and ran in spurs, all fairly densely wooded, but not like the scarp slope up which he had toiled. —  Lawrence - Kangaroo
  • They leave a 'scarp,' a small cliff, perhaps three to ten feet high, where the valley drops down and the mountains stay high. —  FAULT LINE
  • Fault scarp produced by the M7. 1 Hector Mine, California earthquake The fault scarp is the feature on the surface of the can result from slippage along fault scarps. —  Conservapedia - Recent changes [en]
  • Two of them had already crawled close to the scarp, and were pawing over and snuffing the air, as if searching for a place to descend. —  The Hunters' Feast Conversations Around the Camp Fire
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This word has been looked up 98 times.

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Etymologies (4)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Italian scarpa, slope, perhaps of Germanic origin; see sker-1 in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. By apheresis from escarp, v., from French escarper, cut slopewise, scarp, Old French escarpir, escharpir, cut off: see escarp, v.
  2. Formerly also scarf; by apheresis from escarp, from French escarpe = Italian scarpa = Spanish Portuguese escarpa, a scarp, slope: see escarp, and cf. counterscarp).
  3. from Middle English *scarpe, also assibilated sharpe, from Old French escarpe, eskerpe, esquerpe, escharpe, escherpe, eschirpe, escrepe, escreipe, a purse, pouch, a purse-band or belt, a sling, a scarf, French écharpe (later D. sjerp = Swedish skärp = German schärpe; cf. Danish skjærf from English scarf), a scarf, = Spanish Portuguese charpa = Old Italian scarpa, a purse, Italian sciarpa, ciarpa, a scarf, belt, from Old High German scharpe = Middle Dutch scharpe, schærpe, scherpe = Low German schrap = Icelandic skreppa = Swedish skräppa (later English scrip), a pouch, pocket, scrip; cf. Anglo-Saxon sceorp, a robe: see scrip, which is ult. a doublet of scarp. Hence, by some confusion, scarf, the present form of the word. The name, applied to a pilgrim's pocket or pouch hung over the neck, came to be applied to the band suspending the pocket, and hence to a sash or scarf. See scarf.
 

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/skɑrp/
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