as in cliff
a steep wall of rock, earth, or ice
years of violent ocean storms had heavily eroded the beach, creating a scarp along one end of it
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Recent Examples of scarp
The farther away from a scarp, the lesser the hazard.
—
Sharmila Kuthunur, Space.com, 4 Aug. 2025
That is a clear fingerprint of an earthquake, one that, according to the rounding and wear and sloping of the scarp, occurred about 2.6 million years ago.
—Jeffrey Kluger, Time, 29 July 2025
One of the most perplexing hints of hydration are a handful of slope streaks: narrow, long and sometimes bright but usually dark features that are commonly located near the tops of crater walls and scarps.
—Phil Plait, Scientific American, 10 July 2025
The rupturing fault created an approximately 20 meters (or 65 feet) high new scarp on the seafloor, which in turns caused the water displacement and a series of six tsunami moving both east towards Sumatra, and west towards Sri Lanka, India and Africa—eventually reaching the Atlantic and Pacific.
—David Bressan, Forbes, 26 Dec. 2024
Surrounding that is the environmental protective garment (EPG), the heavy, visible, outer covering of the suit that protects the astronauts from cuts and punctures on a lunar terrain that bristles with jagged rocks and scarps.
—Jeffrey Kluger, TIME, 18 Oct. 2024
The Racehorse Creek area is home to 50-million-year-old leaf fossils, and ancient landslide, and a modern landslide that created a 90-foot scarp in 2009, the state Department of National Resources says in a primer on the area.
—Dennis Romero, NBC News, 15 Sep. 2024
Sharmila Kuthunur, Space.com, 4 Aug. 2025
That is a clear fingerprint of an earthquake, one that, according to the rounding and wear and sloping of the scarp, occurred about 2.6 million years ago.
—Jeffrey Kluger, Time, 29 July 2025
One of the most perplexing hints of hydration are a handful of slope streaks: narrow, long and sometimes bright but usually dark features that are commonly located near the tops of crater walls and scarps.
—Phil Plait, Scientific American, 10 July 2025
The rupturing fault created an approximately 20 meters (or 65 feet) high new scarp on the seafloor, which in turns caused the water displacement and a series of six tsunami moving both east towards Sumatra, and west towards Sri Lanka, India and Africa—eventually reaching the Atlantic and Pacific.
—David Bressan, Forbes, 26 Dec. 2024
Surrounding that is the environmental protective garment (EPG), the heavy, visible, outer covering of the suit that protects the astronauts from cuts and punctures on a lunar terrain that bristles with jagged rocks and scarps.
—Jeffrey Kluger, TIME, 18 Oct. 2024
The Racehorse Creek area is home to 50-million-year-old leaf fossils, and ancient landslide, and a modern landslide that created a 90-foot scarp in 2009, the state Department of National Resources says in a primer on the area.
—Dennis Romero, NBC News, 15 Sep. 2024
Recent Examples of Synonyms for scarp
Noun
-
An operation began using a California Highway Patrol helicopter and the Fire Department's cliff rescue and heavy rescue units, the post said.—
Carlos E. Castañeda,
CBS News,
23 June 2026
-
For outdoor enthusiasts, the system now features excursions like the trek up the Eiðiskollur cliffs towering above the northern village of Eiði.—
Rebecca Ann Hughes,
Forbes.com,
20 June 2026
Noun
-
The tents are perched on top of escarpment with views of the TK below.—
Judy Koutsky,
Forbes.com,
13 June 2026
-
Which means the 4,092-square-kilometer area between the high, forested escarpment and the wide stretches of the Zambezi River is still pretty untouched.—
Condé Nast,
Condé Nast Traveler,
2 June 2026
Cite this Entry
“Scarp.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/scarp. Accessed 23 Jun. 2026.
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