scarp n 1: a long steep slope or cliff at the edge of a plateau or ridge; usually formed by erosion [syn: {escarpment}, {scarp}] 2: a steep artificial slope in front of a fortification [syn: {escarpment}, {escarp}, {scarp}, {protective embankment}]
Scarp \Scarp\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Scarped}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Scarping}.] To cut down perpendicularly, or nearly so; as, to scarp the face of a ditch or a rock. [1913 Webster] From scarped cliff and quarried stone. --Tennyson. [1913 Webster] Sweep ruins from the scarped mountain. --Emerson. [1913 Webster]
Scarp \Scarp\, n. [OF. escharpe. See 2d {Scarf}.] (Her.) A band in the same position as the bend sinister, but only half as broad as the latter. [1913 Webster]
Scarp \Scarp\, n. [Aphetic form of {Escarp}.] 1. (Fort.) The slope of the ditch nearest the parapet; the escarp. [1913 Webster] 2. A steep descent or declivity. [1913 Webster]
Escarp \Es*carp"\, n. [F. escarpe (cf. Sp. escarpa, It. scarpa), fr. escarper to cut steep, cut to a slope, prob. of German origin: cf. G. scharf sharp,, E. sharp, or perh. scrape.] (Fort.) The side of the ditch next the parapet; -- same as {scarp}, and opposed to {counterscarp}. [1913 Webster]
88 Moby Thesaurus words for "scarp": abatis, advanced work, balistraria, bank, banquette, barbed-wire entanglement, barbican, barricade, barrier, bartizan, bastion, battlement, bevel, bezel, bluff, breastwork, bulwark, casemate, cheval-de-frise, chute, circumvallation, cliff, contravallation, counterscarp, crag, curtain, demibastion, dike, drawbridge, earthwork, easy slope, enclosure, entanglement, escarp, escarpment, face, fence, fieldwork, fleam, fortalice, fortification, gentle slope, glacis, grade, gradient, hanging gardens, helicline, hillside, inclination, incline, inclined plane, launching ramp, loophole, lunette, machicolation, mantelet, merlon, mound, outwork, palisade, palisades, parados, parapet, pitch, portcullis, postern gate, precipice, ramp, rampart, ravelin, redan, redoubt, sally port, scar, sconce, shelving beach, side, slope, steep, steep slope, stiff climb, stockade, talus, tenaille, vallation, vallum, wall, work