Word.ws English Dictionary

scarps

scarps is the plural of scarp.

scarps is the third-person singular simple present indicative 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

Phrases with scarps

Questions about scarps

What is scarps the plural of?
Scarps is the plural of scarp.

Words near scarps in the dictionary

  1. scarplet
  2. scarplets
  3. scarpment
  4. scarpments
  5. scarproof
  6. scarps
  7. Scarpulla
  8. Scarpullas
  9. scarr
  10. scarre
  11. scarred

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: scarps (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.

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