BERM, edge, border of river, a narrow ledge of ground. In parts of Egypt the whole area reached by the Nile is included in the berm. In military phraseology the berm is the space between the base of a rampart and the ditch, and was useful to prevent earth rolling into the ditch. As it formed a passage-way military engineers decided to discontinue its construction. A Berm-bank is the bank of a canal opposite the towing path.