Word.ws English Dictionary

escarp

/ɪˈskɑːp/US/ɪˈskɑɹp/

escarp is the obsolete spelling of scarp.

Meaning of scarp

Noun

scarp (plural scarps)

  1. The steep artificial slope below a fort's parapet.
    • —I would throw out the earth upon this hand towards the town for the scarp,—and on that hand towards the campaign for the counterscarp.—Very right, Trim, quoth my uncle Toby:—And when I had sloped them to your mind,——an’ please your Honour, I would face the glacis, as the finest fortifications are...1659, Laurence Sterne, chapter XXX, in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
  2. A cliff at the edge of a plateau or ridge caused by erosion or faulting; the steeper side of an escarpment.
    • 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).2014, Paul Salopek, Blessed. Cursed. Claimed., National Geographic (December 2014)https://web.archive.org/web/20150212214621/http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2014/12/pilgrim-roads/salopek-text

See all 3 meanings of scarp

Forms of escarp

Noun
pluralescarps
Verb
third-person singular presentescarps
present participleescarping
past participleescarped
pastescarped

Origin of escarp

From French escarpe, from Proto-Germanic *skarpaz. Doublet of scarp.

Words formed from escarp

Words that rhyme with escarp

Questions about escarp

What is escarp the obsolete spelling of?
Escarp is the obsolete spelling of scarp.
How do you pronounce escarp?
Escarp is pronounced /ɪˈskɑːp/ (UK).

Words near escarp in the dictionary

  1. escargots
  2. escarmouche
  3. escarmouches
  4. escarole
  5. escaroles
  6. escarp
  7. escarped
  8. escarpid
  9. escarpids
  10. escarpiid
  11. escarpiids

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: escarp (page history and authors); scarp (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-escarp.wav.

Cite this entry: “escarp.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/escarp. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.