embankment

[ em-bangk-muhnt ]

noun

1. a bank, mound, dike, or the like, raised to hold back water, carry a roadway, etc.
2. the action of embanking.

embankment

/ ɪmˈbæŋkmənt /

noun

1. See levee
   a man-made ridge of earth or stone that carries a road or railway or confines a waterway See also levee 1

Word History and Origins

Origin of embankment¹

First recorded in 1780–90; embank + -ment

Example Sentences

The deputies did not realize Carrillo was above them, perched just 40 feet away in a covered, well-concealed position up a steep embankment, aiming the same “ghost” weapon that prosecutors say he had used in Oakland.

From ProPublica

Horschel avoided slipping on the embankment this time, but he wasn’t able to save par as he did Saturday.

From Washington Post

We find a site among the half-dozen or so etched into a steep embankment above the creek, with ample space between us and the two other parties here, a solo guy and two women.

From Washington Post

Scrambling over logs and ditches, I discovered the group crouched in a huddle along an embankment beside the creek.

From Outside Online

However, Woods, who was driving northbound, crossed over the median and the opposing lanes before coming to rest in the embankment.

From Washington Post

The perspective down the center of this painting is the raised embankment of an old railroad bed.

From The Daily Beast

The train bore me away … we passed row after row of little grey slum houses running at right angles to the embankment.

From The Daily Beast

The plane settled about 400 yards from the runway in an embankment off a five-lane highway.

From The Daily Beast

“He climbed back up the embankment and slipped in the mud, got mad and chewed me out for half an hour,” Kronk said bitterly.

From The Daily Beast

“I rolled my Toyota Yaris three times this morning after hitting a six-foot-high dirt embankment at highway speed,” he writes.

From The Daily Beast

The embankment or road-bed was commenced by gigantic piling, and is very broad and substantial.

From Project Gutenberg

Huge, dim forms rushed alongside the embankment, making unearthly sounds.

From Project Gutenberg

You must pull yourself together or you'll go stark mad, and then you'll probably go and throw yourself over the Embankment.

From Project Gutenberg

The car dashed over the embankment, demolishing many yards of stone wall and coming to rest in a valley hundreds of feet beneath.

From Project Gutenberg

Presently, I heard it at my own level—the ridge-top of the opposite embankment, a hundred feet or more away.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• hill