cuesta

plural cuestas

1. geographyA hill or ridge with a gentle slope on one side, and a steep slope on the other.

   In eastern Wisconsin the cuesta is drift-covered and less noticeable; permanent settlement came later; lead and zinc mining was absent; and industrial development took a different course.

   1986, Gwen Schultz, Wisconsin's Foundations: A Review of the State's Geology and Its Influence on Geography and Human Activity, Univ of Wisconsin Press, →ISBN, page 127

   1 more example

   At that point the cuesta is 10 miles wide but the hilltops have an eastward descent of only about 62 feet. In its general eastward slope the surface of the cuesta is exactly that of one made by weathering and stream erosion, acting upon a gently-dipping limestone bed in a region never glaciated.

   1965, Lawrence Martin, The Physical Geography of Wisconsin, Univ of Wisconsin Press, →ISBN, page 217

plural Cuestas

1. A surname from Spanish.