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
-
Firefighters who rescued a dog that tumbled 40 feet off a sandy cliff over the ocean onto a ledge received plenty of rewards, California officials and news outlets reported.—
Don Sweeney,
Sacbee.com,
2 Nov. 2025
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When this reef was formed 245,000 to 195,000 years ago, the sea level was higher, so that today, the fossil reef sits well out of the water in the cliff face along the Piankatank River.—
JSTOR Daily,
JSTOR Daily,
31 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
Tries a first flight from the escarpment, a learner breeze across the valley, and realises – wow!—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
3 Nov. 2025
-
For a break from the bustle, locals head to the Edge of the World, a dramatic escarpment about an hour’s drive from downtown that drops into an endless stretch of desert.—
AFAR Media,
AFAR Media,
28 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Scarp.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/scarp. Accessed 9 Nov. 2025.
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