trench

¹

[trench]

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)

1. to surround or fortify with trenches; entrench.

2. to cut a trench in.

3. to set or place in a trench.

4. to form (a furrow, ditch, etc.) by cutting into or through something.

5. to make a cut in; cut into; carve.

verb (used without object)

1. to dig a trench.

verb phrase

1. trench on / upon

   1. to encroach or infringe on.

   2. to come close to; verge on.

      His remarks were trenching on poor taste.

Trench

²

[trench]

noun

1. Richard Chenevix 1807–86, English clergyman and scholar, born in Ireland.

trench

/ trɛntʃ /

noun

1. a deep ditch or furrow

2. a ditch dug as a fortification, having a parapet of the excavated earth

verb

1. to make a trench in (a place)

2. (tr) to fortify with a trench or trenches

3. to slash or be slashed

4. (intr; foll by on or upon) to encroach or verge

trench

1. 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.

Other Word Forms

• subtrench noun
• untrenched adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of trench¹

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; truncate

Word History and Origins

Origin of trench¹

C14: from Old French trenche something cut, from trenchier to cut, from Latin truncāre to cut off

Example Sentences

The deepest marine vertebrate life filmed before this expedition was at 8,336m - a snailfish that was filmed swimming in a deep ocean trench off the coast of Japan in 2023.

From BBC

But as the day went on and she traded a leather Fendi trench coat for a multicolored Loewe one, Barnett’s eyes started to light up differently.

From Los Angeles Times

Dallas should be able to move the ball some, but Philadelphia is sturdier in the trenches.

From Los Angeles Times

For the rest of the year, it remains a sheep field, with the bog snorkelling trenches fenced off.

From BBC

They run alongside raised banks of red earth, deep trenches and neat lines of anti-tank dragon's teeth concrete pyramids.

From BBC

Related Words

• dike 
• foxhole 
• gorge 
• gully 
• moat 
• pit 
• trough 
• waterway