trench
verbEtymology Borrowed into Middle English from Old French trenche. Doublet of tranche and traunch. Possible doublet of English: truncate
7 senses
- 1To invade, especially with regard to the rights or the…
- 2To excavate an elongated pit for protection of soldiers…
- 3To excavate an elongated and often narrow pit.
- 4To have direction; to aim or tend.
- 5To cut; to form or shape by cutting; to make by…
- 6To cut furrows or ditches in.
- 7To dig or cultivate very deeply, usually by digging…
Usually, Followed by upon To invade, especially with regard to the rights or the exclusive authority of another; to encroach.
- 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.1640, Ben Jonson, Underwoods, page 68:
- 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?1832, [Isaac Taylor], Saturday Evening. […], London: Holdsworth and Ball, →OCLC:
2 more examples
- He could make what laws he pleased, as long as those laws did not trench upon property rights.1949, Charles Austin Beard, American Government and Politics, page 16:
- [O]ur ideas, therefore, must trench upon the province of tactics.2005, Carl von Clausewitz, J. J. Graham, On War, page 261:
Government, Military, Politics, War To excavate an elongated pit for protection of soldiers and or equipment, usually perpendicular to the line of sight toward the enemy.
- No more shall trenching war channel her fields.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]:
- Advanc'd upon the field there stood a mound Of earth congested, wall'd , and trench'd around1715–1720, 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:
Archaeology, History, Human sciences, Sciences To excavate an elongated and often narrow pit.
To have direction; to aim or tend.
- the reason and consequence thereof may trench to point of estate1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Judicature”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:
To cut; to form or shape by cutting; to make by incision, hewing, etc.
- The wide wound that the boar had trenched / In his soft flank.1593, [William Shakespeare], Venus and Adonis, London: […] Richard Field, […], →OCLC:
- 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.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]:
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
- trenchant