counterscarp

plural counterscarps

1. architectureThe outer slope of a defensive or fortified ditch

   1 more example

   —I would throw out the earth upon this hand towards the town for the scarp,—and on that hand towards the campaign for the counterscarp.—Very right, Trim, quoth my uncle Toby:—And when I had sloped them to your mind,——an’ please your Honour, I would face the glacis, as the finest fortifications are done in Flanders, with sods,——and as your Honour knows they should be,—and I would make the walls and parapets with sods too.

   1659, Laurence Sterne, chapter XXX, in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman