1729 G. Shelvocke, Jr. tr. K. Siemienowicz Great Art Artillery iv. 197 Round which shall be formed a Berm or Ledge, for the conveniently ranging of certain Paper Tubes or Cases.

1775 R. Montgomery in J. Sparks Corr. Amer. Revol. (1853) I. 470 By the time we arrived there, the fraise around the berme would be destroyed, the rampart in a ruinous state.

1816 C. James New Mil. Dict. (ed. 4) 248/2 Berm..is to prevent the earth from rolling into the ditch, and serves likewise to pass and repass. As it is in some degree advantageous to the enemy, in getting footing, most of the modern engineers reject it.

1840 A. Alison Hist. Europe from French Revol. VIII. lxiii. 424 The ladders..enabled them to reach an intermediate ledge or berm.

1931 F. Bascom in Science LXXIV. 172/1 The word berm..should be used to distinguish those terraces which originate from the interruption of an erosion cycle with rejuvenation of a stream in the mature stage of its development.

1942 C. A. Cotton Geomorphol. (ed. 3) xviii. 242 The term ‘berm’ has been introduced for any remnant of a surface developed to full maturity in a cycle that has since been interrupted. Though it has been said to be a kind of ‘terrace’, a berm may include more than the valley floor which becomes a true river terrace.

1942 O. D. von Engeln Geomorphol. xii. 221 Such a remnantal flat, which has a surface slope downstream, may be called a strath or sometimes, together with the valley shoulder, a berm.