Hypertext Webster Gateway: "trench"

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)

Trench \Trench\, n. [OE. trenche, F. tranch['e]e. See {Trench},
v. t.]
1. A long, narrow cut in the earth; a ditch; as, a trench for
draining land. --Mortimer.

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.
--Chaucer.

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.

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)

Trench \Trench\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Trenched}; p. pr. & vb. n.
{Trenching}.] [OF. trenchier to cut, F. trancher; akin to Pr.
trencar, trenchar, Sp. trinchar, It. trinciare; of uncertain
origin.]
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. --Shak.

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. --Shak.

2. (Fort.) To fortify by cutting a ditch, and raising a
rampart or breastwork with the earth thrown out of the
ditch; to intrench. --Pope.

No more shall trenching war channel her fields.
--Shak.

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.

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)

Trench \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? --I. Taylor.

2. To have direction; to aim or tend. [R.] --Bacon.

{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. --Young.

From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)

trench
n 1: a ditch dug as a fortification having a parapet of the
excavated earth
2: a long steep-sided depression in the ocean floor [syn: {deep},
{oceanic abyss}]
3: any long ditch cut in the ground
v 1: impinge or infringe upon; "This impinges on my rights as an
individual"; "This matter entrenches on other domains"
[syn: {impinge}, {encroach}, {entrench}]
2: fortify by surrounding with trenches; "He trenched his
military camp"
3: cut or carve deeply into; "letters trenched into the stone"
4: set, plant, or bury in a trench; "trench the fallen
soldiers"; "trench the vegetables"
5: cut a trench in, as for drainage; "ditch the land to drain
it"; "trench the fields" [syn: {ditch}]
6: dig a trench or trenches; "The National Guardsmen were sent
out to trench"


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