[syn: trench, ditch]
6. dig a trench or trenches;
- Example: "The National Guardsmen were sent out to trench"
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Trench \Trench\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Trenched; p. pr. & vb. n.
Trenching.] [OF. trenchier to cut, F. trancher; akin to Pr.
trencar, trenchar, Sp. trinchar, It. trinciare; of uncertain
origin.]
1. To cut; to form or shape by cutting; to make by incision,
hewing, or the like.
[1913 Webster]
The wide wound that the boar had trenched
In his soft flank. --Shak.
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This weak impress of love is as a figure
Trenched in ice, which with an hour's heat
Dissolves to water, and doth lose its form. --Shak.
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2. (Fort.) To fortify by cutting a ditch, and raising a
rampart or breastwork with the earth thrown out of the
ditch; to intrench. --Pope.
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No more shall trenching war channel her fields.
--Shak.
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3. To cut furrows or ditches in; as, to trench land for the
purpose of draining it.
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4. To dig or cultivate very deeply, usually by digging
parallel contiguous trenches in succession, filling each
from the next; as, to trench a garden for certain crops.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Trench \Trench\, v. i.
1. To encroach; to intrench.
[1913 Webster]
Does it not seem as if for a creature to challenge
to itself a boundless attribute, were to trench upon
the prerogative of the divine nature? --I. Taylor.
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2. To have direction; to aim or tend. [R.] --Bacon.
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To trench at, to make trenches against; to approach by
trenches, as a town in besieging it. [Obs.]
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Like powerful armies, trenching at a town
By slow and silent, but resistless, sap. --Young.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Trench \Trench\, n. [OE. trenche, F. tranch['e]e. See Trench,
v. t.]
1. A long, narrow cut in the earth; a ditch; as, a trench for
draining land. --Mortimer.
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2. An alley; a narrow path or walk cut through woods,
shrubbery, or the like. [Obs.]
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In a trench, forth in the park, goeth she.
--Chaucer.
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3. (Fort.) An excavation made during a siege, for the purpose
of covering the troops as they advance toward the besieged
place. The term includes the parallels and the approaches.
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To open the trenches (Mil.), to begin to dig or to form the
lines of approach.
Trench cavalier (Fort.), an elevation constructed (by a
besieger) of gabions, fascines, earth, and the like, about
half way up the glacis, in order to discover and enfilade
the covered way.
Trench plow, or Trench plough, a kind of plow for opening
land to a greater depth than that of common furrows.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
trench
n 1: a ditch dug as a fortification having a parapet of the
excavated earth
2: a long steep-sided depression in the ocean floor [syn:
trench, deep, oceanic abyss]
3: any long ditch cut in the ground
v 1: impinge or infringe upon; "This impinges on my rights as an
individual"; "This matter entrenches on other domains"
[syn: impinge, encroach, entrench, trench]
2: fortify by surrounding with trenches; "He trenched his
military camp"
3: cut or carve deeply into; "letters trenched into the stone"
4: set, plant, or bury in a trench; "trench the fallen
soldiers"; "trench the vegetables"
5: cut a trench in, as for drainage; "ditch the land to drain
it"; "trench the fields" [syn: trench, ditch]
6: dig a trench or trenches; "The National Guardsmen were sent
out to trench"
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
260 Moby Thesaurus words for "trench":
Bassalia, abri, abysm, abyss, abyssal zone, adit, air-raid shelter,
approach, approach trench, aqueduct, arroyo, barge in,
bathyal zone, benthos, bomb shelter, bombproof, bore, bottom,
bottom glade, bottom waters, bottomless depths, bottoms,
box canyon, breach, break, break in, break in upon, bunker, burrow,
burst in, butt in, canal, canalization, canalize, canyon, carve,
cave, cavity, chamfer, channel, channelize, chap, charge in, chasm,
check, chimney, chink, chisel, cleave, cleft, cleuch, clough, col,
concealment, conduct, conduit, convey, corrugate, coulee, couloir,
countermine, coupure, course, cover, covert, coverture, crack,
cranny, crash, crash in, crash the gates, creep in, crevasse,
crevice, crimp, crowd in, cut, cut apart, cut in, cwm,
cyclone cellar, dado, dale, defile, dell, delve, dig, dig out,
dike, dingle, ditch, donga, double sap, drain, draw, dredge, drill,
drive, duct, dugout, earth, edge in, egress, elbow in, encroach,
engrave, entrance, entrench, entrenchment, excavate, excavation,
exit, fallout shelter, fault, fire trench, fissure, flaw, flume,
flute, flying sap, foist in, fortified tunnel, fosse, foxhole,
fracture, funk hole, funnel, furrow, gallery, gap, gape, gash,
gill, glen, goffer, gorge, gouge, gouge out, groove, ground, grove,
grub, gulch, gulf, gully, gutter, ha-ha, hole, horn in, impinge,
impose, impose on, impose upon, incise, incision, infiltrate,
infringe, ingress, inner space, insinuate, interfere, interlope,
interpose, intervale, intervene, intrude, invade, irrupt, joint,
kennel, kloof, leak, lower, lunar rill, mine, moat, notch, nullah,
obtrude, ocean bottom, ocean depths, ocean floor, open, opening,
parallel, pass, passage, passageway, pelagic zone, pipe, pleat,
plow, press in, push in, put on, put through, put upon, quarry,
rabbet, ravine, rent, rifle, rift, rime, rive, rupture, rush in,
rut, safety zone, sap, scissure, scoop, scoop out, score, scrabble,
scrape, scratch, seam, shelter, shovel, sink, siphon, slink in,
slip in, slit, slit trench, slot, smash in, sneak in, spade, split,
squeeze in, steal in, storm cave, storm cellar, storm in, strath,
streak, striate, sunk fence, the deep, the deep sea, the deeps,
the depths, throng in, thrust in, trespass, trough, troughing,
troughway, tunnel, vale, valley, verge, void, wadi, way, work in,
worm in, wrinkle