Definition
nounAn inclined surface that connects two levels; an incline.
nounAn interchange, a road that connects a freeway to a surface street or another freeway.
Sentence Examples
Three men jumped out, rolled an old mower down the ramp.
I'm near the on ramp to 25 north.
Word Origin & History
From French rampe, from Middle French rampe, deverbal of ramper, from Old French ramper (“to crawl, climb, scale up”), from Frankish *hrampōn (“to contract oneself, wrinkle, rumple, crumple, curve”), from Proto-Germanic *hrimpaną (“to shrivel, shrink”). Cognate with German Rampf (“retraction, curvature, shrinkage, spasm”). Doublet of romp.
Akin also to Old English ġehrimpan (“to wrinkle, rimple, rumple”), Old High German rimpfan (German rümpfen (“to wrinkle up”)). Compare Danish rimpe (“to fold" (archaic), "to baste”), Icelandic rimpa. More at rimple.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"The RGB model uses the color component of light sources in order to produce more realistic and pleasant results. Internal color representations are always based on a palette-based color ramp."
— 2003, Julio Sanchez, Maria P. Canton, The PC Graphics Handbook, page 915:
"We have created a volume ramp. Play the section in the Timeline and listen to the volume change."
— 2013, Sam Kauffmann, Ashley Kennedy, Avid Editing: A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users, page 40:
"We are surely not meant to think of the sense of “ramp” (from 1819) that means a deliberate swindle or fraud, such as announcing that you have done more tests than you actually have because a third were just posted out."
— 1819, Steven Poole, Steven Poole's word of the week:
"Mick raged and ramped at the barred door till his voice failed,"
— 1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter XII, in Capricornia, New York: D. Appleton-Century, published 1943, page 196:
"In English slang, to ramp was to swindle or rob."
— [2002, William Safire, w:The New York Times Magazine: