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Trench   /trɛntʃ/   Listen
noun
Trench  n.  
1.
A long, narrow cut in the earth; a ditch; as, a trench for draining land.
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."
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.
To open the trenches (Mil.), to begin to dig or to form the lines of approach.
Trench cavalier (Fort.), an elevation constructed (by a besieger) of gabions, fascines, earth, and the like, about half way up the glacis, in order to discover and enfilade the covered way.
Trench plow, or Trench plough, a kind of plow for opening land to a greater depth than that of common furrows.


verb
Trench  v. t.  (past & past part. trenched; pres. part. trenching)  
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." "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."
2.
(Fort.) To fortify by cutting a ditch, and raising a rampart or breastwork with the earth thrown out of the ditch; to intrench. "No more shall trenching war channel her fields."
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  v. i.  
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?"
2.
To have direction; to aim or tend. (R.)
To trench at, to make trenches against; to approach by trenches, as a town in besieging it. (Obs.) "Like powerful armies, trenching at a town By slow and silent, but resistless, sap."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Trench" Quotes from Famous Books



... the well-instructed practical Catholic that is alone capable of appreciating and realizing true freedom. Ever foremost to concede the rights of God, ever careful to trench on the rights of his fellow-creatures, he is, for all this (and precisely because of this), well aware of his own rights and dignity as a man, as a citizen, and as a baptized Christian—a regenerated son of God—and, knowing his rights and dignity, he dares ...
— Public School Education • Michael Mueller
... Charles—were members of such a set. There was Arthur Hallam, son of the historian, from Eton; there was Spedding, the editor and biographer of Bacon; Milnes (Lord Houghton), Blakesley (Dean of Lincoln), Thompson, Merivale, Trench (a poet, and later, Archbishop of Dublin), Brookfield, Buller, and, after Tennyson the greatest, Thackeray, a contemporary if not an "Apostle." Charles Buller's, like Hallam's, was to be an "unfulfilled renown." Of Hallam, whose name is ...
— Alfred Tennyson • Andrew Lang
... or at the guard posts. Important Government officials, such as General Groves and Dr. Vannevar Bush, Director of the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development, viewed the detonation from a trench at the Base Camp. The Base Camp ...
— Project Trinity 1945-1946 • Carl Maag and Steve Rohrer
... of politeness. The truth is just the opposite of this. The more points of contact there are, the more danger of friction there is, and the more carefully should people guard against it. If you see a man only once a month, it is not of so vital importance that you do not trench on his rights, tastes, or whims. He can bear to be crossed or annoyed occasionally. If he does not have a very high regard for you, it is comparatively unimportant, because your paths are generally so diverse. ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 10, Number 59, September, 1862 • Various
... friend who had been away on sick leave, and who complained to him that he could not find his way about. "He drew me a very clear sketch of the lines," writes his friend, Sir Charles Stavely, "explained every nook and corner, and took me along outside our most advanced trench, the bouquets (volleys of small shells fired from mortars) and other missiles flying about us in, to me, a very unpleasant manner, he ...
— The Story of General Gordon • Jeanie Lang


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