# trench
## English
### Etymology

Borrowed into Middle English from Old French trenche. Doublet of tranche and traunch.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /tɹɛnt͡ʃ/
* Rhymes: -ɛntʃ
* Audio (Southern England):(file)

### Noun

trench (plural trenches)
* A long, narrow ditch or hole dug in the ground.
    The trenches for installing the underground cables were dug with a trencher.
** 1981, Peter Brett, Carpentry and Joinery for Building Craft Students, →ISBN: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.
* (military) A narrow excavation as used in warfare, as a cover for besieging or emplaced forces.
    The soldiers in the trenches rely on logistical support.
** 2015, Eugene Rogan, The Fall of the Ottomans, Penguin, published 2016, page 331: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.
* (archaeology) A pit, usually rectangular with smooth walls and floor, excavated during an archaeological investigation.
* (informal) A trench coat.
** 1999, April 24, Xiphias Gladius <ian@schultz.io.com>, "Re: trenchcoat mafia", ne.general.selected, Usenet:
    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.
** 2007, Nina Garcia, The Little Black Book of Style, HarperCollins, as excerpted in Elle, October, page 138:
    A classic trench can work in any kind of weather and goes well with almost anything.

#### Hyponyms

* fire trench
* Mariana Trench
* oceanic trench
* slit trench
* stench trench
* Tonga Trench

#### Derived terms

* entrench
* entrenching tool
* in the trenches
* micro trenching
* mini-trench
* trench art
* trench binoculars
* trench boot
* trench broom
* trench club
* trench coat
* trench cut
* trench derby
* trench dress
* trench effect
* trencher
* trench fever
* trench foot
* trench knife
* trench mentality
* trench mortar
* trench mouth
* trench plate
* trench-plough
* trench-plow
* trench stick
* trench sweeper
* trench warfare

#### Related terms

* tranche

#### Translations
### Verb

trench (third-person singular simple present trenches, present participle trenching, simple past and past participle trenched)
* (usually followed by upon) To invade, especially with regard to the rights or the exclusive authority of another; to encroach.
** 1640, Ben Jonson, Underwoods, page 68: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.
** 1832, [Isaac Taylor], Saturday Evening. […], London: Holdsworth and Ball, →OCLC: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?
** 1949, Charles Austin Beard, American Government and Politics, page 16:He could make what laws he pleased, as long as those laws did not trench upon property rights.
** 2005, Carl von Clausewitz, J. J. Graham, On War, page 261:[O]ur ideas, therefore, must trench upon the province of tactics.
* (military, infantry) To excavate an elongated pit for protection of soldiers and or equipment, usually perpendicular to the line of sight toward the enemy.
** 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]:No more shall trenching war channel her fields.
** 1715–1720, Homer, translated by Alexander Pope, “(please specify the book of the Iliad or chapter quoted from)”, in The Iliad of Homer, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC:Advanc'd upon the field there stood a mound Of earth congested, wall'd , and trench'd around
* (archaeology) To excavate an elongated and often narrow pit.
* To have direction; to aim or tend.
** 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Judicature”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:the reason and consequence thereof may trench to point of estate
* To cut; to form or shape by cutting; to make by incision, hewing, etc.
** 1593, [William Shakespeare], Venus and Adonis, London: […] Richard Field, […], →OCLC:The wide wound that the boar had trenched / In his soft flank.
** 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]: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.
* To cut furrows or ditches in.
    to trench land for the purpose of draining it
* 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

#### Related terms

* trenchant

## French
### Etymology

From English.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /tʁɛntʃ/

### Noun

trench m (plural trenchs)
* trench coat

## Italian
### Etymology

From English trench coat.

### Noun

trench m (invariable)
* trench coat

## Middle English
### Noun

trench
* Alternative form of trenche