Glacis
name, noun ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 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."
- 2 A gentle incline.; A gentle sloping landform created by the deposition or erosion of material.
- 3 A gentle incline.; A gentle incline in front of a fortification which protects it from cannon fire and exposes attackers to more effective return fire from defenders. also, figuratively
"[T]ook his place with solemn / Air 'midst the rest, who kept their valiant faces / And levelled weapons still against the glacis."
- 4 A gentle incline.; In full glacis plate: the angled armour 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).
- 5 A gentle incline.; A device for sorting mail which slides parcels across a sloped surface.
- 1 An administrative district of Seychelles.
Example
More examples"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."
Etymology
Borrowed from French glacis (“slippery surface”), derived from Old French glacier (“to glide; freeze”), the former from Latin glaciāre (“to freeze”), from glaciēs (“ice”), of uncertain origin. Cognates * Medieval Latin glatia (“incline in front of a fortification”)
Related phrases
More for "glacis"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.