trencher
noun/ˈtɹɛnt͡ʃə(ɹ)/
Etymology From Middle English trenchour, from Anglo-Norman trenchour and Old Northern French trencheor (French tranchoir), from trenchier (“to cut, to carve”). See trench (verb).
1
Archaic, Historical A plate on which food is served or cut.
- Mrs Partridge, upon this, immediately fell into a fury, and discharged the trencher on which she was eating, at the head of poor Jenny […]1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC:
2
Someone who trenches; especially, one who cuts or digs ditches.
3
A machine for digging trenches.
- The milling action of the bucket line enables the trencher to cut through difficult materials, such as stone rubble and brick filling, and to leave a good trench with clean side walls.1956 January, “New Permanent Way Equipment on British Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 57:
- Derived terms
- fruit-trencher, lick-trencher, spin the trencher, trencher cap, trencher-fed, trencher fly, trencher friend, trencherful, trencherlike, trenchermaker, trencher-man, trencherman, trencher mate, trencherwoman