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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 (gcide)

Trench \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.
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The wide wound that the boar had trenched
In his soft flank. --Shak.
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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. --Shak.
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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.
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No more shall trenching war channel her fields.
--Shak.
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3. To cut furrows or ditches in; as, to trench land for the
purpose of draining it.
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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.
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Trench \Trench\, v. i.
1. To encroach; to intrench.
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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.
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2. To have direction; to aim or tend. [R.] --Bacon.
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{To trench at}, to make trenches against; to approach by
trenches, as a town in besieging it. [Obs.]
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Like powerful armies, trenching at a town
By slow and silent, but resistless, sap. --Young.
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Trench \Trench\, n. [OE. trenche, F. tranch['e]e. See {Trench},
v. t.]
1. A long, narrow cut in the earth; a ditch; as, a trench for
draining land. --Mortimer.
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2. An alley; a narrow path or walk cut through woods,
shrubbery, or the like. [Obs.]
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In a trench, forth in the park, goeth she.
--Chaucer.
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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.
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{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.
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