escarped

Escarped is a rarely used verb in English, meaning to form or create an escarpment—a long, steep slope or cliff produced by differential erosion, faulting, or other tectonic processes. The past participle "escarped" describes terrain that has been shaped to have such a feature, or the act of creating it.

In scholarly writing, escarp is primarily found in geomorphology, geology, and physical geography. Because of its technical character, many writers prefer "formed an escarpment" or "developed an escarpment" to convey the idea in plain language.

An escarpment marks a boundary between geological units or elevations. The verb escarp, and its past form escarped, is used to describe processes that generate an escarpment, such as tectonic uplift, fault movement, or prolonged differential erosion. For example, "Uplift along the fault escarped the coastal plain, producing a pronounced escarpment."

Related terms include escarpment itself, scarp, cuesta, and other geomorphological terms describing slopes and landforms.

In usage, escarped is rare outside technical contexts and may be replaced by more descriptive phrases that identify the process or the resulting landform.