[f. EARTH sb.1 + WORK sb.] A bank or mound of earth used as a rampart or fortification. Not in 18th c. Dicts.
1633. T. Stafford, Pac. Hib., II. xv. 216. The Enemy had ground sufficient (if a breach were made) to cast up new earth workes.
1830. Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. 278. The remains of an ancient entrenchment…. This earth-work was evidently once of considerable extent.
1863. Kinglake, Crimea (1877), III. iii. 340. The Russians had thrown up strong earthworks on the banks of the river.
