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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 new settlers, in their attempt to clear the country, happened to meet with any of these fortresses, they were obliged to abandon the spot, unless they could muster sufficient forces to lay regular siege to the enemy. This they did by digging a circular trench all round the nest, and filling it with a large quantity of dried wood, to the whole of which they fire at the same time, by lighting it in different parts all round the circumference. While the entrenchments are blazing, the edifice may be destroyed by firing at it ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 13 • Robert Kerr

... disfranchisement, forfeiture. usurpation, tort, violation, breach, encroachment, presumption, assumption, seizure; stretch, exaction, imposition, lion's share. usurper, pretender. V. be undue &c. adj.; not be due &c. 924. infringe, encroach, trench on, exact; arrogate, arrogate to oneself; give an inch and take an ell; stretch a point, strain a point; usurp, violate, do violence to. disfranchise, disentitle, disqualify; invalidate. relax &c. (be lax) 738; misbehave &c. (vice) 945; misbecome[obs3]. Adj. undue; unlawful &c. (illegal) ...
— Roget's Thesaurus • Peter Mark Roget

... But even here there was no rest for us, for it was necessary to strengthen our defenses against the attack which could not be long deferred. The breastwork seemed all too weak now we knew the force which would be brought against it, and we started to dig a trench around it, but so feeble were the men that it was only half completed. Even at the best, our condition was little short of desperate. Much of our ammunition had been ruined, and our supply of provisions was near gone. We had been without bread ...
— A Soldier of Virginia • Burton Egbert Stevenson

... you think had the right conception of woman's love,—the Duke or Cesario? What do you think of Olivia's saying that 'Love sought is good, but given unsought is better'? Which of the two characters show the more humor? Notice Viola's readiness in parrying questions that trench upon her sex. Olivia, on the other hand, can hold her own in a bout of wit with the fool, but she is perhaps not so quick-witted as Viola. We can imagine Viola at once seeing through Malvolio's attempt at pleasing Olivia, instead of taking him for mad, ...
— Shakespeare Study Programs; The Comedies • Charlotte Porter and Helen A. Clarke

... forgotten, while that of Morse would never cease to be remembered with gratitude and praise. We then considered the question as to the right of the company to permit the line to be laid in the bed of the road—the plan of construction at that time being to bury in a trench some eight or ten inches deep a half inch leaden tube containing the wrapped wire that was to form the electric circuit. About this there was, in my opinion, no doubt, and it was not long after that the work of construction commenced. I met Mr. Morse from time to time while ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 441, June 14, 1884. • Various


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