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• trench
  trench

  noun

  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.
• Trench
  Trench

  noun

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

trench

¹ American  

[trench] / trɛntʃ /

noun

• trenches
  plural

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.

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verb (used with object)

• trenches,
  present (3rd person singular)
• trenched,
  past participle,  past
• trenching
  present participle

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)

• trenches,
  present (3rd person singular)
• trenched,
  past participle,  past
• trenching
  present participle

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 American  

[trench] / trɛntʃ /

noun

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

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trench British  

/ trɛntʃ /

noun

1. a deep ditch or furrow

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

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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 Scientific  

/ trĕnch /

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.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• subtrench
  noun
• untrenched
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• trenches
  plural

Participles

• trenching
  present
• trenched
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• trench
  simple
• trenches
  simple
• have trenched
  perfect
• has trenched
  perfect
• am trenching
  progressive
• are trenching
  progressive
• is trenching
  progressive
• have been trenching
  perfect progressive
• has been trenching
  perfect progressive

Past

• trenched
  simple
• had trenched
  perfect
• was trenching
  progressive
• were trenching
  progressive
• had been trenching
  perfect progressive

Future

• will trench
  simple
• will have trenched
  perfect
• will be trenching
  progressive
• will have been trenching
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of trench

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

Explanation

A trench is a deep and narrow hole, or ditch, in the ground, like the kind soldiers on frontlines might dig to give themselves shelter from the enemy. A natural trench may also be a deep hole on the bottom of the ocean. The verb trench means to dig or to cut into, but you will most often hear the word as a noun, particularly relating to soldiers. The phrase trench warfare became popular around World War I, when technological advances in weapons changed the way that wars were fought. Today, you may have even own a trench coat, a kind of raincoat first worn by soldiers.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

trench Trench trenches trenched trenching

At one with Burberry, guests could purchase and customize vintage trench coats.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026

The scene where Harris approached a captured bug, rocking an ankle-length black trench coat with his blonde hair in a close crew cut, was the closest “Troopers” came to clubbing the audience in the ribs.

From Salon ● Sep. 9, 2026

"I’ve always felt supported from day one and it’s a story that keeps going," she told BFM TV, wearing black sunglasses and a beige trench coat.

From Barron's ● Aug. 28, 2026

The material was already buried when Constance arrived and it was his job to dig a 6m-deep trench around the outside of the mound before it was sealed using plastic membrane sheets and liquid clay.

From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026

Spies are big this year too, and a little girl in a tiny trench coat and dark sunglasses is absolutely hilarious.

From "A Good Kind of Trouble" by Lisa Moore Ramée

Because this pelagic clay layer stretches for hundreds of miles along the Japan Trench, researchers believe the region may be more vulnerable to shallow slip earthquakes than previously thought.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 5, 2026

The Cotabato Trench, which lies as close as 50 kilometres off Mindanao, is the site of frequent seismic activity, including a "swarm" of thousands of mostly small tremors recorded in January.

From Barron's ● Jun. 19, 2026

Monday's quake was caused by a movement on the Cotabato Trench, off the country's southern tip.

From BBC ● Jun. 9, 2026

“It really comes back to the savings rate,” said Trench.

From MarketWatch ● Jan. 30, 2026

I had once asked the captain how far we were from the Marianas Trench, because each day the sea is exactly the same.

From "Challenger Deep" by Neal Shusterman

Tart, who signed a three-year contract extension in January, is the anchor in the trenches after starting in 17 games last season.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 7, 2026

Many employers now expect managers to do less coordinating between departments, and to spend more time in the trenches building products or generating revenue themselves.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026

Polish and German soldiers worked for five weeks at the frontier to dig trenches, lay barbed wire and place long lines of concrete barriers known as "hedgehogs" across the landscape.

From Barron's ● Aug. 21, 2026

Don’t take the chance of returning to the trenches, possibly suffering a catastrophic injury that could potentially put you in a wheelchair for life.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2026

It has been estimated that a third of the Allied casualties on the Western Front were suffered by men in trenches.

From "The War to End All Wars: World War I" by Russell Freedman

After clearing swaths of torched aloe plants, he trenched in about 500 native plants that he said “will look spectacular in a few years.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2025

Haphazardly established in the 1960s, the massive garbage pile was never trenched or lined, and no one knows what might be leaking from the dump into the ground.

From New York Times ● Oct. 18, 2019

Olson, even though it trenched upon the president’s executive authority, concluding that the statute did not unduly limit the president’s power because the imposition was slight.

From Washington Post ● Jun. 12, 2018

And he was as equally unhappy during construction, when the company trenched up his manicured yard to run the pipeline 60 feet from the front door of his family’s 5-year-old brick home.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 29, 2017

Many of the fair’s fifty-seven miles of roadway were still either submerged or coated with mud, and others had been gouged and trenched by vehicles that had used the roads while they were still sodden.

From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson

Amy Bodek, the county’s regional planning director, recently warned Edison that a government ordinance protects oak trees and that “utility trenching is not exempt from these requirements.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 22, 2026

The developer’s footprint proposes excavation and trenching over identified Indigenous Traditional Cultural Properties, historic and archaeological resources and access to exercise ceremonial practices and treaty-gathering rights.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 25, 2022

They were used to using machinery and trenching and those skills were transferrable to cemeteries.

From BBC ● Jan. 26, 2022

“He started trenching, picking, and ordered up drilling,” said Mr. Kabongo.

From New York Times ● Dec. 7, 2021

Tools for emergency, tow lines, a small block and tackle, a trenching tool and crowbar, tools for making and fixing and improvising.

From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck

Related Words

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