Definition of "trench"

trench

/t(ʃ)ɹɛnt͡ʃ/

noun
plural trenches
1. A long, narrow ditch or hole dug in the ground.
2. (military) A narrow excavation as used in warfare, as a cover for besieging or emplaced forces.
3. (archaeology) A pit, usually rectangular with smooth walls and floor, excavated during an archaeological investigation.
4. (informal) A trench coat.
  Quotations
  I was the first person in my high school to wear a trench and fedora constantly, and Ben was one of the first to wear a black trench.
  1999, April 24, Xiphias Gladius <ian@schultz.io.com>, "Re: trenchcoat mafia", ne.general.selected, Usenet
  A classic trench can work in any kind of weather and goes well with almost anything.
  2007, Nina Garcia, The Little Black Book of Style, HarperCollins, as excerpted in Elle, October, page 138
verb
third-person singular simple present trenches, present participle trenching, simple past and past participle trenched
1. (usually followed by upon) To invade, especially with regard to the rights or the exclusive authority of another; to encroach.
  Quotations
  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
  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
2. (military, infantry) To excavate an elongated pit for protection of soldiers and or equipment, usually perpendicular to the line of sight toward the enemy.
  Quotations
  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, [Act I, scene i]
  Advanc'd upon the field there stood a moundOf earth congested, wall'd , and trench'd around
  1715–1720, Homer, [Alexander] Pope, transl., “(please specify the book of the Iliad or chapter quoted from)”, in The Iliad of Homer, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […]
3. (archaeology) To excavate an elongated and often narrow pit.
4. To have direction; to aim or tend.
  Quotations
  the reason and consequence thereof may trench to point of estate
  1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Judicature”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret
5. To cut; to form or shape by cutting; to make by incision, hewing, etc.
  Quotations
  The wide wound that the boar had trenched / In his soft flank.The spelling has been modernized.
  1593, 1896
  This weak impress of love is as a figure / Trenched in ice, which with an hour's heatDissolves 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, [Act III, scene ii]
6. To cut furrows or ditches in.
7. To dig or cultivate very deeply, usually by digging parallel contiguous trenches in succession, filling each from the next.

Definition of "trench"

trench

noun

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verb

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