What is "terrace"

Terrace \Ter"race\, n. [F. terrasse (cf. Sp. terraza, It. terrazza), fr. L. terra the earth, probably for tersa, originally meaning, dry land, and akin to torrere to parch, E. torrid, and thirst. See Thirst, and cf. Fumitory, Inter, v., Patterre, Terrier, Trass, Tureen, Turmeric.]

1. A raised level space, shelf, or platform of earth, supported on one or more sides by a wall, a bank of tuft, or the like, whether designed for use or pleasure.

2. A balcony, especially a large and uncovered one.

3. A flat roof to a house; as, the buildings of the Oriental nations are covered with terraces.

4. A street, or a row of houses, on a bank or the side of a hill; hence, any street, or row of houses.

5. (Geol.) A level plain, usually with a steep front, bordering a river, a lake, or sometimes the sea.

   Note: Many rivers are bordered by a series of terraces at different levels, indicating the flood plains at successive periods in their history.

   Terrace epoch. (Geol.) See Drift epoch, under Drift, a.

Terrace \Ter"race\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Terraced; p. pr. & vb. n. Terracing.] To form into a terrace or terraces; to furnish with a terrace or terraces, as, to terrace a garden, or a building.
--Sir H. Wotton.

Clermont's terraced height, and Esher's groves.
--Thomson.

1510s, "gallery, portico, balcony," later "flat, raised place for walking" (1570s), from Middle French terrace (Modern French terasse), from Old French terrasse (12c.) "platform (built on or supported by a mound of earth)," from Vulgar Latin *terracea, fem. of *terraceus "earthen, earthy," from Latin terra "earth, land" (see terrain). As a natural formation in geology, attested from 1670s. In street names, originally in reference to a row of houses along the top of a slope, but lately applied arbitrarily as a fancy name for an ordinary road. As a verb from 1610s, "to form into a terrace." Related: Terraced.

n. 1 A platform that extends outwards from a building. 2 A raised, flat-topped bank of earth with sloping sides, especially one of a series for farming or leisure; a similar natural area of ground, often next to a river. 3 A row of residential houses with no gaps between them; a group of row houses. 4 (context in the plural chiefly British English) The standing area at a football ground. 5 (context chiefly Indian English English) The roof of a building, especially if accessible to the residents. Often used for drying laundry, sun-drying foodstuffs, exercise, or sleeping outdoors in hot weather. vb. 1 To provide something with a terrace. 2 To form something into a terrace.

1. n. usually paved outdoor area adjoining a residence [syn: patio]

2. a level shelf of land interrupting a declivity (with steep slopes above and below) [syn: bench]

3. a row of houses built in a similar style and having common dividing walls (or the street on which they face); "Grosvenor Terrace"

4. v. provide (a house) with a terrace; "We terrassed the country house" [syn: terrasse]

5. make into terraces as for cultivation; "The Incas terraced their mountainous land"

Terrace may refer to:

• Terrace (agriculture), a leveled surface built into the landscape for agriculture or salt production
• Terrace (building), a raised flat platform
• Terrace (geology), a step-like landform that borders a shoreline or river floodplain
• Terrace garden, an element where a raised flat paved or gravelled section overlooks a prospect
• Terraced house, a style of housing where identical individual houses are cojoined into rows
• Terrace (stadium), standing spectator areas, especially in Europe and South America, or the sloping portion of the outfield in a baseball stadium, not necessarily for seating, but for practical or decorative purposes
• Fluvial terrace, a natural, flat surface that borders and lies above the floodplain of a stream or river
• Tone terracing in phonetics
• Terrace melodic motion in music
• Terrace, a street suffix
• The roof of a building, especially one accessible to the residents for various purposes

__NOTOC__ Terrace is an award-winning strategy game played by two, three, or four players on a multi-leveled 8×8 (or, more recently, 6×6) board. It is most widely known for also being a prop in the American television series Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Computer versions of the game are also available.

In geology, a terrace is a step-like landform. A terrace consists of a flat or gently sloping geomorphic surface, called a tread, that is typically bounded one side by a steeper ascending slope, which is called a "riser" or "scarp." The tread and the steeper descending slope (riser or scarp) together constitute the terrace. Terraces can also consist of a tread bounded on all sides by a descending riser or scarp. A narrow terrace is often called a bench.

The sediments underlying the tread and riser of a terrace are also commonly, but incorrectly, called terraces, leading to confusion.

Terraces are formed in various ways.

A terrace is an external, raised, open, flat area in either a landscape (such as a park or garden) near a building, or as a roof terrace on a flat roof.

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In agriculture, a terrace is a piece of sloped plane that has been cut into a series of successively receding flat surfaces or platforms, which resemble steps, for the purposes of more effective farming . This type of landscaping, therefore, is called terracing. Graduated terrace steps are commonly used to farm on hilly or mountainous terrain. Terraced fields decrease both erosion and surface runoff, and may be used to support growing crops that require irrigation, such as rice. The Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras have been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of the significance of this technique.

Terraced paddy fields are used widely in rice, wheat and barley farming in east, south, and southeast Asia, as well as other places. Drier-climate terrace farming is common throughout the Mediterranean Basin, e.g., in Cadaqués, Catalonia, where they were used for vineyards, olive trees, cork oak, etc., on Mallorca, and in Cinque Terre, Italy.

In the South American Andes, farmers have used terraces, known as andenes, for over a thousand years to farm potatoes, maize, and other native crops. Terraced farming was developed by the Wari' and other peoples of the south-central Andes before 1000 AD, centuries before they were used by the Inca, who adopted them. The terraces were built to make the most efficient use of shallow soil and to enable irrigation of crops.

The Inca built on these, developing a system of canals, aqueducts, and puquios to direct water through dry land and increase fertility levels and growth. These terraced farms are found wherever mountain villages have existed in the Andes. They provided the food necessary to support the populations of great Inca cities and religious centres such as Machu Picchu.

Terracing is also used for sloping terrain; the Hanging Gardens of Babylon may have been built on an artificial mountain with stepped terraces, such as those on a ziggurat. At the seaside Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum, the villa gardens of Julius Caesar's father-in-law were designed in terraces to give pleasant and varied views of the Bay of Naples.

Terraced fields are common in islands with steep slopes. The Canary Islands present a complex system of terraces covering the landscape from the coastal irrigated plantations to the dry fields in the highlands. These terraces, which are named cadenas (chains), are built with stone walls of skillful design, which include attached stairs and channels.

In Old English, a terrace was also called a "lynch" ( lynchet). An example of an ancient Lynch Mill is in Lyme Regis. The water is directed from a river by a duct along a terrace. This set-up was used in steep hilly areas in the UK.

A terrace or terracing in sporting terms refers to the traditional standing area of a sports stadium, particularly in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. A terrace is a series of concrete steps which are erected for spectators to stand on.

Its significance carries particular importance in football where terraces were located in the areas behind the two goals as a cheaper alternative to sitting in the stands, which were traditionally located at the sides of the field. Naturally the price of standing in the terraces was much cheaper than a seat with the result that over the decades they became the most popular spectators' area for younger working class men and teenage boys to watch the game.

Due to safety concerns related to terraces, they have fallen out of favour in many places. Terraces were banned from major football grounds in England in the early 1990s, as a result of the Hillsborough disaster, are currently not used during major tournaments, and for a long time were generally not included in new stadium designs. There is currently a growing demand for a reintroduction of terracing, based on the modern stadia designs in Germany and other European countries, dubbed " safe-standing" areas.