rampart

Borrowed from Middle French rempart (“a rampart of a fort”), from Old French remparer (“to defend, fortify, inclose with a rampart”), from re- (“again”) + defend, fortify, surround, seize, take possesion of, from Old Occitan amparer, from Vulgar Latin *anteparō (“to prepare”), from Latin ante- + parō (“to prepare”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹæm.pɑː(ɹ)t/

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rampart (plural ramparts)

1. A defensive mound of earth or a wall with a broad top and usually a stone parapet; a wall-like ridge of earth, stones or debris; an embankment for defensive purpose.
2. A defensive structure; a protective barrier; a bulwark.
3. That which defends against intrusion from outside; a protection.
4. (usually in the plural) A steep bank of a river or gorge.

rampart (third-person singular simple present ramparts, present participle ramparting, simple past and past participle ramparted)

1. To defend with a rampart; fortify or surround with a rampart.
   • 1793, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Ode on the Departing Year:

     Those grassy hills, those glittering dells, / Proudly ramparted with rocks.

• ramparted

• fraise

• “rampart”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “rampart”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “rampart”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.