counterfort

From Middle French contrefort

counterfort (plural counterforts)

1. A buttress built against a wall.
   • 2011, Gareth J. Hearn, Slope Engineering for Mountain Roads, →ISBN, page 209:

     The soil above the base of a reinforced concrete cantilever or counterfort wall is included as part of the weight of the wall in stability calculations.

2. A spur of a mountain range.
   • 1899, Edward John Payne, History of the New World Called America: book II, page 428:

     This angle is buttressed from the interior by an enormous counterfort of lower mountain country, extending several hundred miles to the eastward, forming the main part of the highlands of Bolivia, and separating the tributaries of the Amazon

   • 1913, Costa Rica-Panama arbitration: argument of Costa Rica, page 428:

     The physical impossibility of the line along the counterfort or mountain range from Punta Mona was easily demonstrated, for the very simple reason that no such counterfort or mountain range existed.

• The Imperial Dictionary of the English Language (1882)