cutbank
- noun
- /ˈkʌtˌbæŋk/
- US
:
banco cortado
- "The time in the Sixteen country when my father tangled with a bear that was marauding nightly into the sheep, he looked up after having thrust the rifle in the bear's ribs for a desperate fatal shot and found my mother standing on the cutbank just above him, holding a lantern, watching the whole show.
Examples
-
Boys took her mare, and she followed the Hetman past where his yurt stood atop a cutbank, closest to wood and water.
Fiction book (1996) -
His stories have appeared in Story, The Graywolf Annual Four, Black Warrior Review, Granta, and Cutbank.
Fiction book (1992) -
Along the cutbanks, what appeared to be gold sparkled in the breaking morning light.
Fiction book (1997) -
I thought it was an odd thing: Luke, a skinny kid, a year younger than Jeff, looking about as substantial as a spiderweb next to Jeff, and with a kind of hot, surprised look on his face most of the time, like he didn't know what to expect of the world but he was determined it wouldn't be good; and then Jeff Gruber, solid and square as a cutbank when you come around a bend, and always looking like he knew what he was about.
Fiction book (1998) -
He rides alone, but they are usually two neighbors together, one riding shotgun next to the driver who fixes dead ahead, intent on swerving around anything in the road, racing along and hoping not to stall, dodging rocks thrown from up the cutbanks.
Fiction book (1996) -
The river was bordered by steep cutbanks that were eroded by years of flowing water.
-
She carefully approached the edge of the cutbank to get a better view of the fish below.
-
Hiking along the trail, we noticed that steep cutbanks made walking difficult in some areas.
Synonyms
438
1.0
A high, steep edge of rock or ground often by the sea
160
3.0
A raised slope of earth beside water or a road
42
5.5
A high, steep cliff beside a river
24
1.3
The ground along the edge of a river
5
5.5
A very steep edge of land or rock
3
8.2
A long steep slope or cliff that separates higher land from lower land
A steep rocky bank beside a river or stream
How Steep
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Cutbank comes from the common words cut ('to cut') and bank ('edge of land'). It shows a river or road has 'cut' into the bank and worn it away, leaving a steep slope, which is why a cutbank is a steep, eroded bank beside a river, road, or railway.