scarp

Aphetic form of escarp. Doublet of sharp.

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

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

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)

     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.

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 Rpilogue, 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, […]

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

scarp m (plural scarpi)

1. Obsolete form of scarpă.

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