See Also: trench(dictionary)
trench(2)(dictionary)
trench(1)(dictionary)
trench(medicine)
trench lung(medicine)
trench warfare(dictionary)
trench coat(dictionary)
Mariana Trench(dictionary)
trench warfare(encyclopedia)
trench (as used in expressions)(encyclopedia)

trench(1) (iou)



trench noun. LME.
[Old French trenche cutting, cut, ditch, slice, from trenchier: see TRENCH verb.]
A path or track cut through a wood or forest. LME-L16.
A long narrow (usu. deep) ditch or furrow cut out of the ground. L15.
Green Cuisine To plant potatoes..lay them in trenches 6in..deep. Build It! A professional groundworker digging the trenches and putting down the concrete.
Military.
a. Orig., a deep narrow ditch dug by troops, the earth from which is thrown or banked up in front as a defensive parapet. Later also, such a ditch together with its defensive parapet. Now chiefly (in pl.), the connected series or system of such defences forming an army's line. L15.
Times The German barrage fire on the trenches..was of extreme severity.
b. The parapet or bank of earth in front of a trench. M16-E18.
c. fig. A defensive position or barrier; in pl., the front line. E17.
Rolling Stone He has been in the trenches too long not to be a master at mixing sincerity with evasiveness.
d. In full trench coat. Orig. (in the war of 1914-18), a soldier's long padded or lined waterproof overcoat. Now also, any long loose belted double-breasted raincoat. E20.
Vogue Updated Trenches styled in luxury gaberdine.
Anything resembling a trench; spec. (a) a cut, scar, or deep wrinkle in the face; (b) Anatomy & Zoology (now rare) a cavity, pit, or fossa; (c) Carpentry a part of a joint in the form of a long narrow slot cut across the grain. L16.
Shakespeare Titus Andronicus Witness these trenches made by grief and care.
A bridoon or snaffle used in conjunction with a curb-bit. Also more fully flying trench. E17-E18.
An elongated natural channel in the seabed; spec. a very long one several kilometres deep, running parallel to the edge of a continent or an island arc and believed to mark a subduction zone. M20.
Comb.: trench boot: combined with leggings; trench coat: see sense 3d above; trench-coated adjective wearing a trench coat; trench feet = trench foot below; trench fever an epidemic louse-borne rickettsial disease that was common among soldiers in the war of 1914-18, causing splenomegaly and recurrent fever; trench foot a painful condition of the feet caused by prolonged immersion in cold water or mud and marked by blackening and death of surface tissue; trench-knife (orig. Military): having a double-edged blade; trench mortar Military a small mortar for throwing bombs from a front trench into enemy trenches; trench mouth Medicine ulcerative gingivitis; trench-rat the brown or Norway rat, Rattus norvegicus; trench warfare (a) hostilities carried on from more or less permanent trenches; (b) fig. a protracted dispute in which the parties maintain entrenched positions while persistently attacking their opponents.
trenchful noun (chiefly Military) as much or as many as a trench will hold E20.
trenchless adjective (esp. of pipe-laying or draining machinery) that dispenses with the cutting of a trench M20.