[f. EMBANK v. + -MENT.]
1. The action or process of embanking.
1874. Helps, Social Pressure, iii. 50. For instance the embankment of the Thames.
2. A mound, bank, or other structure for confining a river, etc., within fixed limits.
1786. Burke, Art. W. Hastings, Wks. 1842, II. 159/2. To make … new and additional embankments in aid of the old ones.
a. 1806. S. Horsley, Serm., xxix. (1810), II. 404. To him Babylon owed … the embankments which confined the river.
1832. G. Downes, Lett. Cont. Countries, I. 490. The islets are defended from the water by earthen embankments.
Mod. Cleopatra’s Needle is on the Thames Embankment.
fig. 1875. Hamerton, Intell. Life, X. ix. 384. Some solid embankment of unshakable rule and resolution.
3. A long earthen bank or mound, esp. one raised for the purpose of carrying a road or a railway across a valley.
1810. J. T., in Risdon’s Surv. Devon, Introd. 33. A vast embankment, over which the canal is carried.
1846. J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric., II. 194. Early crops may … be protected by … embankments of earth … at the north side.
1862. Rep. E. Ind. Rail. Comp., 19. The embankments, nevertheless, have not suffered more than was expected.
1872. Ruskin, Fors Clav., II. xix. 13. But spend annually one-tenth of the sum you now give to build embankments against imaginary enemies, in building embankments for the help of people whom you may easily make your real friends.
