glacis
A gentle incline.
The foam of these great ruins mounts in an instant to the ridge of the sand glacis, swiftly fleets back again, and is met and buried by the next breaker.
(geomorphology) A gentle sloping landform created by the deposition or erosion of material.
(military, architecture, also figuratively) A gentle incline in front of a fortification which protects it from cannon fire and exposes attackers to more effective return fire from defenders.
[T]ook his place with solemn / Air 'midst the rest, who kept their valiant faces / And levelled weapons still against the glacis.
[T]heir hearts had failed them at the silence and the blaze of lighted ships from end to end of the harbour, with eerie beams of the searchlights revealing the bleakness of the glacis they would have to cross.
(military) The angled armor plate on the front of a tank which protects it from projectiles; also (often nautical), such a plate protecting an opening (for example, on a ship).
(postal) A device for sorting mail which slides parcels across a sloped surface.
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