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

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

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Here, the military has marked out a stretch of land, surrounded by clearly defined trenches, where people can plant their crops.

Read more on BBC

For example, “Pinky could conclude only that the strength of the floor diaphragm where the trench headers bisected the slab was inadequate.”

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

As the ice keeps vaporizing, it gradually slides downhill, carving a long, deep trench with ridges on either side.

Read more on Science Daily

But Roberts had dug a trench and set a trap.

Read more on Salon

Related Words

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