scaur
- noun
- /skɔːr/
- Archaic
:
escarpe
- The hikers carefully climbed down the steep scaur to get a better view of the river below.
Examples
-
Now we walked through a hushed world that admitted no sign of human occupation other than ourselves: a world of needlecone forests and rocky scaurs, of snow-drifted meadows and lonely alpine lakes.
Fiction book (1993) -
After the heavy rains, the scaur became slippery, making the walk along the edge more dangerous.
-
The old castle stood on a craggy scaur, overlooking the valley and the winding river.
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
8
7.0
A steep rough rock or cliff that sticks out from the land
4
3.4
The steep side of a cliff that looks over the sea
1
9.1
A long steep slope or cliff at the edge of a high flat area
1
8.4
A steep cliff at the top of a small mountain valley
A steep, eroded slope of earth beside a river, road, or railway
How Steep
Surface Forms
Etymology
Scaur comes from old northern words meaning a 'notch' or 'cut' in the land and is like the English word scar ('cut'). So a scaur is like a 'cut' in the earth—a steep bank or cliff by a river.