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Scarp   /skɑrp/   Listen
Scarp

noun
1.
A long steep slope or cliff at the edge of a plateau or ridge; usually formed by erosion.  Synonym: escarpment.
2.
A steep artificial slope in front of a fortification.  Synonyms: escarp, escarpment, protective embankment.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Scarp" Quotes from Famous Books



... the lip of a small and perfect lake of poignant blue, that fills the cup made by the meeting of a ring of massive heights. At the end of the lake, miles away, but, thanks to the queerness of mountain perspective, looking close enough to touch, rises the scarp of Mount Victoria, capped with a vast glacier that seemed to shine with curious inner lambency under the clear light of the grey day. There is a touch of the theatre in that view from the windows or the broad lawns of the Chateau, for ...
— Westward with the Prince of Wales • W. Douglas Newton

... Clote Scarp with men. It is long to wait till he comes again,— But a Friend was near and could hear ...
— In Divers Tones • Charles G. D. Roberts

... your track apparently runs point-blank: a confronting mass which, if it were to slip down, would overwhelm the whole town. But in a moment you find that the road, the old Roman highway into the peninsula, turns at a sharp angle when it reaches the base of the scarp, and ascends in the stiffest of inclines to the right. To the left there is also another ascending road, modern, almost as steep as the first, and perfectly straight. This is the road to ...
— The Well-Beloved • Thomas Hardy

... blaze of light behind it. Our stormers had carried it and swept the defenders back into the true breach beside the tower. Some stray bullets splashed among us as we toppled down the ditch and mounted the scarp—shots fired from Heaven knows where, but probably from some French retreating along the top ...
— The Adventures of Harry Revel • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... republic is even more indebted for its signal successes in Mexico, than to the high military character of this population-no young aspirant for glory, fresh from this useful school, could have greater delight in laying out his first bastion, or counter-scarp, or glacis, than Corporal Flint enjoyed in fortifying Castle Meal. It will be remembered that this was the first occasion he was ever actually at the head of the engineering department Hitherto, it had been his fortune to follow; ...
— Oak Openings • James Fenimore Cooper

... for military purposes. For long stretches along the north side the cliffs stand sheer and have spurs that dip down sharply to the valley. The ridge, or the top of the bluff, which looks from below like the scarp of a great plateau, lies at an average of a mile or more from the stream. Many of these spurs jut out in such a way that if fortified they could enfilade up and downstream. To add to the military value of such a barrier the edge of the scarp is heavily wooded, while the ...
— The Story of the Great War, Volume II (of VIII) - History of the European War from Official Sources • Various

... shoulder of this island was Fort Moultrie, an irregular fort, without ditch or counterscarp, with a brick scarp wall about twelve feet high, which could be scaled anywhere, and this was surmounted by an earth parapet capable of mounting about forty twenty-four and thirty-two pounder smooth-bore iron guns. Inside the fort were three two-story brick barracks, sufficient to quarter the officers and men of ...
— The Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman, Complete • William T. Sherman

... rejoice greatly when they beheld the enemy; and the banished Cavaliers felt an emotion of national pride when they saw a brigade of their countrymen, outnumbered by foes and abandoned by friends, drive before it in headlong rout the finest infantry of Spain, and force a passage into a counter-scarp which had just been pronounced impregnable by the ablest ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 11 • Various

... Walk, leading to an angle where the North and West escarpments met. From this high corner of the square earthworks a vast extent of country could be seen. A footpath ran steeply down the green slope, conducting from the shady promenade on the walls to a road at the bottom of the scarp. It was by this path the Scotchman had ...
— The Mayor of Casterbridge • Thomas Hardy

... slacken'd their pace, And the marvellous prospect each moment changed face. The breezy and pure inspirations of morn Breathed about them. The scarp'd ravaged mountains, all worn By the torrents, whose course they watch'd faintly meander, Were alive with the diamonded shy salamander. They paused o'er the bosom of purple abysses, And wound through a region of green wildernesses; The waters went whirling above and around, The forests hung ...
— Lucile • Owen Meredith

... distance, now—there was a monstrous scarp of mountains, colored in glaring and unnatural tints. Immediately about there was raw rock. But it was peculiarly smooth, as if sand grains had rubbed over it for uncountable aeons and carefully worn away every trace of unevenness. ...
— Sand Doom • William Fitzgerald Jenkins

... Dead Sea lay, a stretch of silk. At its edge was the flutter of ospreys feasting on the barbels and breams of the Jordan, which as they enter, die. Beyond was a glitter of white and gold, the scarp of Moriah and its breast of stone, the Tyrian bevel of Solomon, the porphyry of Nehemiah, the marble that Herod gave; ascending terraces, engulfing porticoes, the splendor of Jerusalem at dawn. Between the houses nearest was the dimness that shadows cast; those further ...
— Mary Magdalen • Edgar Saltus



Words linked to "Scarp" :   munition, incline, fortification, protective embankment, side, slope



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