retrenchment
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɹɪˈtɹɛn(t)ʃm(ə)nt/
ipa: /ɹəˈtɹɛnt͡ʃm(ə)nt/
ipa: [ɹi-]
Forms: form: retrenchments
Etymology: Probably partly from both of the following:
* Middle French retrenchement, retranchement (“removal of a portion from a larger whole; reduction of expenses”) (modern French retranchement (“deduction, subtraction”)), from retrancher, retranchier (“to get rid of, remove completely; to remove a portion from a larger whole; to reduce expenses; to deprive (oneself) of”) [and other forms] + -ment (suffix forming nouns usually of an action or a state resulting from an action). Retrancher and retranchier are derived from Old French re- (prefix meaning ‘again, once more’) + tranchier, trenchier (“to cut”) [and other forms] (modern French trancher (“to slice”)); the further etymology is uncertain, but one possibility is that the Old French words are from Latin truncāre, the present active infinitive of truncō (“to mutilate by cutting off pieces; to truncate”), from truncus (“tree trunk; piece cut off”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *twerḱ- (“to carve; to cut off, trim”).
* retrench (“to cut down, reduce; to reduce expenses; to make (an employee) redundant”) + -ment. Retrench is derived from Middle French retrancher, retranchier: see above.
Senses: examples: text: It agrees that redundant services should not be continued but is not unmindful of the fact that too much retrenchment of rail services now may ultimately prove detrimental to the economy of the country.
ref: 1955 June, “Notes and News: Redundant Branches and Stations”, in Railway Magazine, page 434:
text: Last year it was announced that electrification of L.M.R. main lines was to be speeded up and that it would be essential for the engineers to have the longest possible occupation of the lines involved; this would mean some retrenchment of passenger train services.
ref: 1960 February, R. C. Riley, “The London–Birmingham services – Past, Present and Future”, in Trains Illustrated, London: Ian Allan Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 98:
text: And the retrenchment of services such as mental health and drug rehabilitation means that vulnerable people are more likely to find themselves on the street.
ref: 2018 October 28, “The Observer view on the budget and the decade of austerity”, in The Observer, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 19 Oct 2019:
synonyms: cutting down
diminution
lessening
glosses: A curtailment or reduction.
examples: text: Must my anxious management, my prudent retrenchments, dear Margaretta's savings, all go!
ref: 1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXII, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 289:
text: From this time, the hand which had ever been ready to supply all our wants real or imaginary, opened less promptly at our demands. My father talked occasionally of retrenchment and economy when some of our extravagant bills came in; but we paid little heed to his remarks on this head. Where could we retrench? In what could we economize? The very idea was absurd.
ref: 1864 July, T[imothy] S[hay] Arthur, “My Father”, in Arthur’s Home Magazine, volume XXIV, Philadelphia, Pa.: T. S. Arthur & Sons, →OCLC, pages 23–24:
synonyms: cutting down
diminution
lessening
cutback
glosses: A curtailment or reduction.
An act of reducing expenses; economizing.
synonyms: cutting down
diminution
lessening
glosses: A curtailment or reduction.
An act of terminating the employment of a worker or making an employee redundant, often to reduce expenses; a layoff.
examples: text: Even then—10 long years ago—our disillusionment over past failures, our revulsion against moralistic posturing, our retrenchment from prescribing what was best for other people, our withdrawal symptoms from the exhilarations of overcommitment—all these argued for the perspective of diversity; for lowering our goals.
ref: 1973, Thomas L. Hughes, “Democracy, Diversity, and the Flight from Foreign Policy”, in Foreign Policy, number 10, →JSTOR, pages 144–5:
text: If it is allowed, however, that the theatre of cosmic evolution is endowed with some fixed structure, even a very weak one, then there is a retrenchment from the programme of an evolutionary account of every general law.
ref: 1999, Abner Shimony, “Can the fundamental laws of nature be the results of evolution?”, in Jeremy Butterfield, Constantine Pagonis, editors, From Physics to Philosophy, →ISBN, page 214:
text: Given the current retrenchment of liberal internationalism, it is easy to forget that only three decades ago many believed that liberalism had attained a historically definitive victory over all alternatives.
ref: 2023, Kevin Carnahan, “Christian Realism and International Relations”, in Dallas Gingles et al., editors, The Future of Christian Realism: International Conflict, Political Decay, and the Crisis of Democracy, →ISBN, page 115:
glosses: Withdrawal.