trench Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a ditch dug as a fortification having a parapet of the excavated earth
  2. noun a long steep-sided depression in the ocean floor
    oceanic abyss; deep.
  3. noun any long ditch cut in the ground
  4. verb impinge or infringe upon
    impinge; entrench; encroach.
    • This impinges on my rights as an individual
    • This matter entrenches on other domains
  5. verb fortify by surrounding with trenches
    • He trenched his military camp
  6. verb cut or carve deeply into
    • letters trenched into the stone
  7. verb set, plant, or bury in a trench
    • trench the fallen soldiers
    • trench the vegetables
  8. verb cut a trench in, as for drainage
    ditch.
    • ditch the land to drain it
    • trench the fields
  9. verb dig a trench or trenches
    • The National Guardsmen were sent out to trench

WordNet

Trench transitive verb
Etymology
OF. trenchier to cut, F. trancher; akin to Pr. trencar, trenchar, Sp. trinchar, It. trinciare; of uncertain origin.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Trenched ; present participle & verbal noun Trenching
Definitions
  1. To cut; to form or shape by cutting; to make by incision, hewing, or the like.
    The wide wound that the boar had trenched In his soft flank. Shak.
    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. Shak.
  2. (Fort.) To fortify by cutting a ditch, and raising a rampart or breastwork with the earth thrown out of the ditch; to intrench. Pope.
    No more shall trenching war channel her fields. Shak.
  3. To cut furrows or ditches in; as, to trench land for the purpose of draining it.
  4. To dig or cultivate very deeply, usually by digging parallel contiguous trenches in succession, filling each from the next; as, to trench a garden for certain crops.
Trench intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To encroach; to intrench.
    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? I. Taylor.
  2. To have direction; to aim or tend. R. Bacon.
    Like powerful armies, trenching at a town By slow and silent, but resistless, sap. Young.
Trench noun
Etymology
OE. trenche, F. tranchée. See Trench, v. t.
Definitions
  1. A long, narrow cut in the earth; a ditch; as, a trench for draining land. Mortimer.
  2. An alley; a narrow path or walk cut through woods, shrubbery, or the like. Obs.
    In a trench, forth in the park, goeth she. Chaucer.
  3. (Fort.) An excavation made during a siege, for the purpose of covering the troops as they advance toward the besieged place. The term includes the parallels and the approaches.

Webster 1913