trench

Borrowed into Middle English from Old French trenche. Doublet of tranche and traunch.

• IPA^(key): /tɹɛnt͡ʃ/
• Rhymes: -ɛntʃ

• Audio (Southern England):

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trench (plural trenches)

1. A long, narrow ditch or hole dug in the ground.

   The trenches for installing the underground cables were dug with a trencher.

2. (military) A narrow excavation as used in warfare, as a cover for besieging or emplaced forces.

   The soldiers in the trenches rely on logistical support.

3. (archaeology) A pit, usually rectangular with smooth walls and floor, excavated during an archaeological investigation.
4. (informal) A trench coat.
   • 1999, April 24, Xiphias Gladius <ian@schultz.io.com>, "Re: trenchcoat mafia", ne.general.selected, Usenet:

     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.

   • 2007, Nina Garcia, The Little Black Book of Style, HarperCollins, as excerpted in Elle, October, page 138:

     A classic trench can work in any kind of weather and goes well with almost anything.

• tranche

trench (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.
   • 1640, Ben Jonson, Underwoods, page 68:

     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.

   • 1832, [Isaac Taylor], Saturday Evening. […], London: Holdsworth and Ball, →OCLC:

     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?

   • 1949, Charles Austin Beard, American Government and Politics, page 16:

     He could make what laws he pleased, as long as those laws did not trench upon property rights.

   • 2005, Carl von Clausewitz, J. J. Graham, On War, page 261:

     [O]ur ideas, therefore, must trench upon the province of tactics.

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.
   • 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]:

     No more shall trenching war channel her fields.

   • 1715–1720, 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:

     Advanc'd upon the field there stood a mound
     Of earth congested, wall'd , and trench'd around

3. (archaeology) To excavate an elongated and often narrow pit.
4. To have direction; to aim or tend.
   • 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Judicature”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:

     the reason and consequence thereof may trench to point of estate

5. To cut; to form or shape by cutting; to make by incision, hewing, etc.
   • 1593, [William Shakespeare], Venus and Adonis, London: […] Richard Field, […], →OCLC:

     The wide wound that the boar had trenched / In his soft flank.

   • 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]:

     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.

6. To cut furrows or ditches in.

   to trench land for the purpose of draining it

7. 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

• trenchant

From English.

• IPA^(key): /tʁɛntʃ/

trench m (plural trenchs)

1. trench coat

From English trench coat.

trench m (invariable)

1. trench coat

trench

1. Alternative form of trenche