Other forms: cliffs
A cliff is a high steep wall of rock, often falling into the sea. The white cliffs, the cliff edge, fall off a cliff.
Sea cliffs are cut back by waves undermining the base until the face collapses, which is why coastal erosion goes in sudden falls rather than steadily. Britain loses land this way every year. Figuratively, falling off a cliff describes a sudden collapse in a number. Note cliffhanger; and cliff edge, which in politics means an abrupt change of terms.
1nouncliffA high steep wall of rock.
“Seabirds nest high on the white cliffs above the sea.”
cliff is a landform.
Old English clif is Germanic, with cognates across the North Sea languages. It is one of the oldest landscape words in English and has barely changed.
Proto-Indo-European
*gleybʰ-
Proto-Germanic
*klibą
Proto-West Germanic
*klib
Old English
clif
Middle English
clyf
English, today
cliff
From Middle English clyf, from Old English clif, from Proto-West Germanic klib, from Proto-Germanic klibą.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA