The Collaborative International Dictionary
parados \par"a*dos\ (p[a^]r"[.a]*d[o^]s), n.; pl. Paradoses
(p[a^]r"[.a]*d[o^]s*[e^]z). [F., fr. parer to defend + dos
back, L. dorsum.] (Fort.)
An intercepting mound, erected in any part of a fortification
to protect the defenders from a rear or ricochet fire; a
traverse.
--Farrow.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
n. (context military English) An embankment built to protect the rear of a position from enemy attack. (from 19th c.)
Usage examples of "parados".
Germans had converted the parados into an invulnerable parapet and had constructed a nest of machine-guns to sweep with a crossfire the right and left flanks, where our line curved in like a gigantic horse-shoe.
Looking over the parados I could see the country in rear, dim in the hazy night.
At every turn where the parados opened to the rear they stared you in the face, the damp, clammy, black mounds of clay with white crosses over them.
Already the parados was lined with newly-made firing positions, that gave the sentry view of the German trench some forty or fifty yards in front.
It was dropping to earth behind the parados and I had a distinct view of the missile before ducking to avoid the splinters flung out by the explosion.
I was seated on the parados blowing up an air pillow which had been sent to me by an English friend and watching the fight up at Souchez when Bill came up to me.
Hugging the parados, messengers carried the word in both directions and presently periscopes were leveled above the parados and keen eyes were searching out the traitor.
And when at last they reached the trench, those farthest on the left of the advancing Britishers heard a machine gun sputter suddenly before them and saw a huge lion leap over the German parados with the body of a screaming Hun soldier between his jaws and vanish into the shadows of the night, while squatting upon a traverse to their left was Tarzan of the Apes with a machine gun before him with which he was raking the length of the German trenches.
High explosive and steel and brass had had their way with the landscape, blowing big holes in the trenches, knocking down stretches of parapet and parados, and incidentally knocking a couple of vital machine-gun positions topsy-turvy.
How should Michael Parados, the Greek robber, know the name of the gentleman he had killed?
And on the north-west side (of Bisnaga) is another city called Crisnapor[465] connected with Bisnaga, in which are all their pagodas, those in which they most worship, and all the revenue of this city is granted to them, and they say that they have a revenue of a hundred thousand parados of gold.