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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Trench \Trench\, verb (used with an object) [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.
The wide wound that the boar had trenched In his soft flank. --Shak.
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.
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.
No more shall trenching war channel her fields. --Shak.
3. To cut furrows or ditches in; as, to trench land for the purpose of draining it.
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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Definitions retrieved from local copies of the freely distributed DICT client/server software and databases. Click here for database copyright information. - KM |