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berm

noun, verb — 10 senses

berm

noun

/bɜː(ɹ)m/

Etymology From Dutch berm (“strip of roadside grass, verge”), probably via French berme, from Middle Dutch barm, baerm, barem (“verge, bank”), from Old Dutch *barm, from Proto-West Germanic *barm, from Proto-Germanic *barmaz (“edge, border, seam”).

9 senses
  1. 1A narrow ledge or shelf, as along the top or bottom of a slope.
  2. 2A raised bank or path, especially the bank of a canal…
  3. 3One of the flat terraces on the slope of an open-pit mine.
  4. 4A terrace or shelf of sand along a beach, formed above…
  5. 5A long mound or bank of earth, used especially as a…
  6. 6A small wall along the edge of a bench of an open-pit…
  7. 7A ledge between the parapet and the moat in a fortification.
  8. 8A strip of land between a street and sidewalk.
  9. 9The edge of a road.
1

A narrow ledge or shelf, as along the top or bottom of a slope.

2

A raised bank or path, especially the bank of a canal opposite the towpath.

  • The big canals in Europe, in Holland, have a great big berm on the side of the canal several feet wide, which they leave there on purpose to plant reeds in, so as to get a reedy vegetation to protect their slope. Then, beyond that, there is an earthen slope that is grassed and sodded.1910 February 23, U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture, Protection of Watersheds of Navigable Streams, page 139:
3

Business, Mining Australia One of the flat terraces on the slope of an open-pit mine.

4

A terrace or shelf of sand along a beach, formed above the high tide water level by wave action.

  • On some beaches, the berm grows higher in summer and flattens out in the rougher winter seas.
5

A long mound or bank of earth, used especially as a barrier or to provide insulation.

  • A berm separates the Moroccan-controlled and Polisario-controlled parts of Western Sahara.
6

Business, Mining Canada, US A small wall along the edge of a bench of an open-pit mine, intended to prevent items falling over the crest.

7

A ledge between the parapet and the moat in a fortification.

8

New Zealand, Pennsylvania A strip of land between a street and sidewalk.

Indiana; Ohio; Indiana; Ohio

  • The sun soaked our street in hot yellow, and the berms were gasping for water.2003, Emma Espiner, There’s a Cure for This: A Memoir, Penguin, page 15:
9

Pennsylvania, Western The edge of a road.

Derived terms
Cape Cod berm

berm

verb

Etymology From Dutch berm (“strip of roadside grass, verge”), probably via French berme, from Middle Dutch barm, baerm, barem (“verge, bank”), from Old Dutch *barm, from Proto-West Germanic *barm, from Proto-Germanic *barmaz (“edge, border, seam”).

1

To provide something with a berm

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.