Trench , n. [OE.
trenche, F. tranchée. See Trench, v. t.]
1. A long, narrow cut in
the earth; a
ditch; as, a
trench for draining land.
Mortimer.
2. An alley; a narrow path or walk cut through woods, shrubbery,
or the like. [Obs.]
In a trench, forth in the park,
goeth she.
Chaucer.
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.
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.
Trench , v. i. 1. To
encroach; to intrench.
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. 2. To have direction; to aim or tend. [R.]
Bacon.
To trench at, to make trenches against; to approach by trenches, as a town in besieging it. [Obs.]
Like powerful armies,
trenching at a town
By slow and silent, but resistless, sap.
Young.
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.
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.
Hear it pronounced