trench

plural trenches

1. A long, narrow ditch or hole in the ground; either manmade, or formed naturally through erosion or tectonic plate movement.

   The trenches for installing the underground cables were dug with a trencher.

   2 more examples

   The milling action of the bucket line enables the trencher to cut through difficult materials, such as stone rubble and brick filling, and to leave a good trench with clean side walls.

   1956 January, “New Permanent Way Equipment on British Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 57

   Figure 114 shows how pegs driven into the bottom of a foundation trench to establish a horizontal level for the concreter to work to, can be levelled with a boning rod held upright on the pages at either end of the trench.

   1981, Peter Brett, Carpentry and Joinery for Building Craft Students, →ISBN

2. governmentA narrow excavation as used in warfare, as a cover for besieging or emplaced forces.

   The soldiers in the trenches rely on logistical support.

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   Following in the tank's wake, the cameliers reached the first line of Turkish trenches, where they confronted a handful of Ottoman soldiers too wounded to retreat.

   2015, Eugene Rogan, The Fall of the Ottomans, Penguin, published 2016, page 331

3. archaeologyA pit, usually rectangular with smooth walls and floor, excavated during an archaeological investigation.
4. informalA trench coat.

   A classic trench can work in any kind of weather and goes well with almost anything.

   2007, Nina Garcia, The Little Black Book of Style, HarperCollins, as excerpted in Elle, October, page 138

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   I was the first person in my high school to wear a trench and fedora constantly, and Ben was one of the first to wear a black trench.

   1999, April 24, Xiphias Gladius, "Re: trenchcoat mafia", ne.general.selected, Usenet

present singular third person trenches · participle present trenching · participle past trenched · past trenched

1. usuallyTo invade, especially with regard to the rights or the exclusive authority of another; to encroach.

   [O]ur ideas, therefore, must trench upon the province of tactics.

   2005, Carl von Clausewitz, J. J. Graham, On War, page 261

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   Shee is the Judge, Thou Executioner, Or if thou needs would'st trench upon her power, Thou mightst have yet enjoy'd thy crueltie, With some more thrift, and more varietie.

   1640, Ben Jonson, Underwoods, page 68

   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?

   1832, [Isaac Taylor], Saturday Evening. […], London: Holdsworth and Ball, →OCLC

   He could make what laws he pleased, as long as those laws did not trench upon property rights.

   1949, Charles Austin Beard, American Government and Politics, page 16

2. infantrygovernmentTo excavate an elongated pit for protection of soldiers and or equipment, usually perpendicular to the line of sight toward the enemy.

   No more shall trenching war channel her fields.

   c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]

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   Advanc'd upon the field there stood a mound Of earth congested, wall'd , and trench'd around

   1715–1720, Homer, “(please specify the book of the Iliad or chapter quoted from)”, in Alexander Pope, transl., The Iliad of Homer, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC

3. archaeologyTo excavate an elongated and often narrow pit.
4. To have direction; to aim or tend.

   the reason and consequence thereof may trench to point of estate

   1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Judicature”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC

5. To cut; to form or shape by cutting; to make by incision, hewing, etc.

   The wide wound that the boar had trenched / In his soft flank.

   1593, [William Shakespeare], Venus and Adonis, London: […] Richard Field, […], →OCLC

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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.

   c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]

6. To cut furrows or ditches in.

   to trench land for the purpose of draining it

7. To dig or cultivate very deeply, usually by digging parallel contiguous trenches in succession, filling each from the next.

   to trench a garden for certain crops

plural Trenches

1. countableuncountableA suburb of Telford, Telford and Wrekin borough, Shropshire, England (OS grid ref SJ6912).
2. countableuncountableA habitational surname.