embankv.
/ɪmˈbaŋk/, /ɛmˈbaŋk/, U.S. /əmˈbæŋk/, /ɛmˈbæŋk/ 1.
a. transitive. To enclose, shut in, confine, or protect by banks; esp. to confine the course of (a river) by a mound, dyke, or raised structure of stone or other material.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > industry > earth-moving, etc. > [verb (transitive)] > embank
banka1450
bench1587
embank1700
levee1832
bund1883
1576 A. Fleming tr. Erasmus in Panoplie Epist. 351 Or what should become of the water, if it were not imbancked with the earth?
1700 J. Tyrrell Gen. Hist. Eng. II. 814 No River..shall be imbanked.
1770 Monthly Rev. 490 Embank the north side of the Thames.
1796 J. Morse Amer. Universal Geogr. (new ed.) II. 526 A..lofty..mound.. embanked one side of the river.
1807 J. Barlow Columbiad i. 45 York leads his wave, imbank'd in flowery pride.
1853 E. K. Kane U.S. Grinnell Exped. (1856) xl. 363 This hole was critically circular..symmetrically embanked.
b. to embank out: to exclude (the sea) by embankments.
ΚΠ
1822 in J. A. Picton City of Liverpool: Select. Munic. Rec. (1886) II. 353 To embank out the sea at that place.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > grounding of vessel > be aground [verb (intransitive)] > go aground > accidentally
runc1275
to fall on shorea1400
strike1518
shore1600
to run agrounda1616
embanka1649
strand1687
a1649 W. Drummond Hist. James IV in Wks. (1711) 64 The English Ships..embanked, and stuck moor'd upon the Shelves.
3. To cover with embankments; to cut into embankments.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > land > land mass > shore or bank > embankment or dam > [verb (transitive)]
levee1832
staithe1839
embank1872
1872 J. Ruskin Fors Clavigera II. xix. 13 The operation of embanking hill-sides, so as to stay the rain-flow, is a work of enormous cost and difficulty.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1891; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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