scarp

English

Etymology

Aphetic form of escarp.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /skɑːp/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /skɑɹp/
• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)p

Noun

scarp (plural scarps)

1. The steep artificial slope below a fort's parapet.
2. (geology) A cliff at the edge of a plateau or ridge caused by erosion or faulting; the steeper side of an escarpment.
   • 2014, Paul Salopek, Blessed. Cursed. Claimed., National Geographic (December 2014)[1]

     Sweating under the sun, we scale the barren eastern scarp of the Great Rift Valley (Area B), edging carefully around controversial, razor-wired Israeli settlements (Area C).

3. (heraldry) Obsolete spelling of scarpe, scrape
   • 1673, Matthew Carter, Honor Redivivus: Or, The Analysis of Honor and Armory, page 211:

     [...] as in the seventh, which is Argent a Scarp Azure.

   • 1724, John Guillim, A Display of Heraldry, page 38:

     He beareth Argent, a Scarp, Azure.

Derived terms

• anti-scarp
• fault scarp

 

Translations

artificial slope

• Bulgarian: скарп m (skarp)
• Finnish: eskarppi (fi)

cliff caused by erosion

• Bulgarian: стръмен склон m (strǎmen sklon)
• Finnish: jyrkänne (fi)
• German:

  Alemannic German: Flueh f

• Hungarian: szakadásfal

Verb

scarp (third-person singular simple present scarps, present participle scarping, simple past and past participle scarped)

1. (earth science, geography, transitive) to cut, scrape, erode, or otherwise make into a scarp or escarpment

   to scarp the face of a ditch or a rock

   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, (please specify |part=prologue or epilogue, or |canto=I to CXXIX):

     From scarped cliff and quarried stone

   • 1867, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “May-Day”, in May-Day and Other Pieces, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 38:

     For thou, O Spring! canst renovate / All that high God did first create. / […] / Sweep ruins from the scarped mountain, / Cleanse the torrent at the fountain, […]

Anagrams

• APCRs, Carps, RSPCA, carps, craps, parcs, pracs, scrap

Romanian

Noun

scarp m (plural scarpi)

1. Obsolete form of scarpă.

Declension

Declension of scarp

	singular		plural
	indefinite articulation	definite articulation	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) scarp	scarpul	(niște) scarpi	scarpii
genitive/dative	(unui) scarp	scarpului	(unor) scarpi	scarpilor
vocative	scarpule		scarpilor

References

• scarp in Academia Română, Micul dicționar academic, ediția a II-a, Bucharest: Univers Enciclopedic, 2010. →ISBN