glacis

Borrowed from French glacis. French glacir "to freeze, make slippery," from Old French glacier "to slip, glide," from Vulgar Latin *glaciare "to make or turn into ice," from Latin glacies "ice" (probably from a suffixed form of PIE root *gel- "cold; to freeze").

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡleɪsɪs/, /ˈɡlæsi/

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glacis (plural glacises or glacis)

1. (military) A gentle incline in front of a fortification.
   • 1926, T.E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, New York: Anchor, published 1991, page 130:

     their hearts had failed them at the silence and the blaze of lighted ships from end to end of the harbour, with eerie beams of the searchlights revealing the bleakness of the glacis they would have to cross.

2. (military) The angled armour plate on the front of a tank; glacis plate.
3. (geomorphology) An erosional or depositional landform, with little slope.
4. (postal service) A device for sorting mail which slides parcels across a sloped surface.

glacis

1. second-person singular present subjunctive form of glaçar

glacis

1. past of glacar