I. ˈtrench noun
( -es )
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English trenche track cut through a wood, from Middle French, act of cutting, cut, from trenchier to cut
1.
a. : a long narrow cut in the ground : ditch , fosse
dig a trench for sewer pipe
b. : a long narrow excavation used for military defense and often having the excavated dirt mounded up in front of it as an earthwork — compare approach trench , bunker , dugout , fire trench , parallel 1c, slit trench
c. obsolete : a protective earthwork
resolved that the ditches … should be deepened, and the trenches heightened — Fynes Moryson
2. : something that resembles a trench: as
a. archaic : furrow , groove
these trenches made by grief and care — Shakespeare
b. : firing line 2
in the cultural struggle … schools are the frontline trenches — Paul Blanshard
3.
a. : a narrow steep-sided depression eroded by a stream : canyon , gully
b. : a long straight comparatively narrow intermontane depression often occupied by parts of two or more drainage systems : trough
c. : a long narrow steep-sided depression in an ocean floor : ocean deep — compare canyon
II. verb
( -ed/-ing/-es )
Etymology: in sense 1, from Middle French trenchier to cut, cut across, trench, probably modification of Latin truncare to cut off; in other senses, partly from Middle English trenche, n. and partly from Middle French trenchier — more at truncate
transitive verb
1.
a. : to make a cut in : carve , incise
inscriptions … trenched in one of the stones — John Webb
surface trenching at numerous points on the … outcrop — W.H.A.Lawrence
b. obsolete : to make a gash in : slash
the wide wound, that the boar had trenched in his soft flank — Shakespeare
2.
a.
(1) : to dig a protective trench in
trench a hill
(2) : to protect with or as if with a trench
trench an outpost
b. : to turn over (soil) two or more times the depth of a spade
c.
(1) : to cut a drainage trench in : ditch
trench land to drain it
(2) : to drain by trenches
d. : to bury in or confine by means of a trench
trenching logs to prevent rolling — Glossary of Terms Used in Forest Fire Control
stopping more than 3000 small fires and trenching in nearly 100 big ones — W.B.Greeley
e. : entrench 2
intransitive verb
1.
a. obsolete : to approach a military objective by a series of trenches
like powerful armies trenching at a town — Edward Young
b. archaic : to extend out : stretch
the land trenched away west for fifteen hundred miles — Daniel Defoe
2.
a. : entrench 2
trenching on other domains which were more vital — Sir Winston Churchill
b. : to come close : verge
catches himself … trenching upon presumption — T.V.Smith
3. : to dig a trench
trench around the spot right down to the clay — Sydney (Australia) Bulletin