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. 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 Chen·e·vix [shen, -, uh, -vee], 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

/ 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.

Other Words From

• subtrench noun
• un·trenched 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

I put on my old Army trench coat and boots and, as I have on many days, and especially in these monumental moments, I made my pilgrimage to Trump Tower in downtown Chicago.

From Salon

There were only a few people outside at first and I felt like I was in some type of bad film noir, a Black man wearing an old trench coat in the rain as his country succumbs to fascism is walking to one of the headquarters of the elected dictator.

From Salon

“We really want Elsbeth’s clothing to be the equivalent of Columbo’s trench coat,” says Daniel Lawson, “Elsbeth’s” costume designer.

From Los Angeles Times

“Her clothing is the Columbo trench coat — the idea of it — the piece of sand in your bathing suit.”

From Los Angeles Times

The funny thing is that until recently I had assumed that the contest was going to be political trench warfare again and the result would be very close.

From Salon

Related Words

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