trench
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: Trench
Etymology
Borrowed into Middle English from Old French trenche. Doublet of tranche and traunch.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /tɹɛnt͡ʃ/
- Rhymes: -ɛntʃ
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Noun
trench (plural trenches)
- A long, narrow ditch or hole dug in the ground.
- The trenches for installing the underground cables were dug with a trencher.
- (military) A narrow excavation as used in warfare, as a cover for besieging or emplaced forces.
- The soldiers in the trenches rely on logistical support.
- (archaeology) A pit, usually rectangular with smooth walls and floor, excavated during an archaeological investigation.
- (informal) A trench coat.
- 1999, April 24, Xiphias Gladius <ian@schultz.io.com>, "Re: trenchcoat mafia", ne.general.selected, Usenet:
- I was the first person in my high school to wear a trench and fedora constantly, and Ben was one of the first to wear a black trench.
- 2007, Nina Garcia, The Little Black Book of Style, HarperCollins, as excerpted in Elle, October, page 138:
- A classic trench can work in any kind of weather and goes well with almost anything.
- 1999, April 24, Xiphias Gladius <ian@schultz.io.com>, "Re: trenchcoat mafia", ne.general.selected, Usenet:
Derived terms
- entrench
- entrenching tool
- fire trench
- in the trenches
- micro trenching
- mini-trench
- oceanic trench
- slit trench
- stench trench
- trench art
- trench binoculars
- trench boot
- trench broom
- trench club
- trench coat
- trench cut
- trench derby
- trench dress
- trench effect
- trencher
- trench fever
- trench foot
- trench knife
- trench mentality
- trench mortar
- trench mouth
- trench plate
- trench-plough
- trench-plow
- trench stick
- trench warfare
Related terms
Translations
long, narrow ditch or hole
|
military excavation
|
Verb
trench (third-person singular simple present trenches, present participle trenching, simple past and past participle trenched)
- (usually followed by upon) To invade, especially with regard to the rights or the exclusive authority of another; to encroach.
- 1640, Ben Jonson, Underwoods, page 68:
- Shee is the Judge, Thou Executioner, Or if thou needs would'st trench upon her power, Thou mightst have yet enjoy'd thy crueltie, With some more thrift, and more varietie.
- 1832, [Isaac Taylor], Saturday Evening. […], London: Holdsworth and Ball, →OCLC:
- Does it not seem as if for a creature to challenge to itself a boundless attribute, were to trench upon the prerogative of the divine nature?
- 1949, Charles Austin Beard, American Government and Politics, page 16:
- He could make what laws he pleased, as long as those laws did not trench upon property rights.
- 2005, Carl von Clausewitz, J. J. Graham, On War, page 261:
- [O]ur ideas, therefore, must trench upon the province of tactics.
- (military, infantry) To excavate an elongated pit for protection of soldiers and or equipment, usually perpendicular to the line of sight toward the enemy.
- c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
- No more shall trenching war channel her fields.
- 1715–1720, Homer, translated by Alexander Pope, “(please specify the book of the Iliad or chapter quoted from)”, in The Iliad of Homer, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC:
- Advanc'd upon the field there stood a mound
Of earth congested, wall'd , and trench'd around
- (archaeology) To excavate an elongated and often narrow pit.
- To have direction; to aim or tend.
- 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Judicature”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:
- the reason and consequence thereof may trench to point of estate
- To cut; to form or shape by cutting; to make by incision, hewing, etc.
- 1593, [William Shakespeare], Venus and Adonis, London: […] Richard Field, […], →OCLC:
- The wide wound that the boar had trenched / In his soft flank.
- c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
- This weak impress of love is as a figure / Trenched in ice, which with an hour's heat
Dissolves to water, and doth lose its form.
- To cut furrows or ditches in.
- to trench land for the purpose of draining it
- To dig or cultivate very deeply, usually by digging parallel contiguous trenches in succession, filling each from the next.
- to trench a garden for certain crops
Related terms
Etymology
From English.
Pronunciation
Noun
trench m (plural trenchs)
Etymology
From English trench coat.
Noun
trench m (invariable)
Noun
trench
- Alternative form of trenche
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