trench

[trench] /trɛntʃ/
noun
1.
Fortification. a long, narrow excavation in the ground, the earth from which is thrown up in front to serve as a shelter from enemy fire or attack.
2.
trenches, a system of such excavations, with their embankments, etc.
3.
a deep furrow, ditch, or cut.
4.
Oceanography. a long, steep-sided, narrow depression in the ocean floor.
verb (used with object)
5.
to surround or fortify with trenches; entrench.
6.
to cut a trench in.
7.
to set or place in a trench.
8.
to form (a furrow, ditch, etc.) by cutting into or through something.
9.
to make a cut in; cut into; carve.
verb (used without object)
10.
to dig a trench.
Verb phrases
11.
trench on/upon,
  1. to encroach or infringe on.
  2. to come close to; verge on:
    His remarks were trenching on poor taste.
Origin
1350-1400; Middle English trenche path made by cutting < Old French: act of cutting, a cut, derivative of trenchier to cut < Vulgar Latin *trincāre, for Latin truncāre to lop; see truncate
Related forms
subtrench, noun
untrenched, adjective

Trench

[trench] /trɛntʃ/
noun
1.
Richard Chenevix
[shen-uh-vee] /ˈʃɛn ə vi/ (Show IPA), 1807–86, English clergyman and scholar, born in Ireland.
Examples from the web for trench
  • trench suggested that a new, truly comprehensive dictionary was needed.
  • The men were buried where they lay in the trench and the rifles left untouched.
  • Overall he totalled about nine months of active, frontline trench warfare.
  • This gave birth to trench warfare, a tactic heavily used during world war i.
British Dictionary definitions for trench

trench

/trɛntʃ/
noun
1.
a deep ditch or furrow
2.
a ditch dug as a fortification, having a parapet of the excavated earth
verb
3.
to make a trench in (a place)
4.
(transitive) to fortify with a trench or trenches
5.
to slash or be slashed
6.
(intransitive; foll by on or upon) to encroach or verge
See also trenches
Word Origin
C14: from Old French trenche something cut, from trenchier to cut, from Latin truncāre to cut off
Word Origin and History for trench
n.

late 14c., "track cut through a wood," later "long, narrow ditch" (late 15c.), from Old French trenche "a slice, ditch" (late 13c.), from trenchier "to cut," possibly from Vulgar Latin *trincare, from Latin truncare "to cut or lop off" (see truncate). Trenches for military protection are first so called c.1500. Trench warfare first attested 1918. Trench-coat first recorded 1916, a type of coat worn by British officers in the trenches.

trench in Science
trench
  (trěnch)   
A long, steep-sided valley on the ocean floor. Trenches form when one tectonic plate slides beneath another plate at a subduction zone. The Marianas Trench, located in the western Pacific east of the Philippines, is the deepest known trench (10,924 m or 35,831 ft) and the deepest area in the ocean.