Trench | Webster's Dictionary (1865)

Trĕnch, v. t.

verbtransitive

(66), v. t. [imp. & p. p. TRENCHED (trĕncht); p. pr. & vb. n. TRENCHING.] [O. Fr. trencher, trenchier, trencer, N. Fr. trancher, Prov. Fr. trinquer, Pr. trencar, trenchar, trinchar, It. trinciare, probably from Lat. truncare, to cut off; to truncate.]

To cut or dig, as a ditch, a channel for water, or a long hollow in the earth; as, we trench land for draining.
To fortify by cutting a ditch and raising a rampart or breastwork of earth thrown out of the ditch; to intrench. [Rare.]
To dig very deeply, usually by means of a succession of parallel trenches, as earth for certain purposes of tillage.
To cut a long gash in. [Obs.] Shak.
To hew out; to form by hewing or cutting. [Obs.]

A figure Trenched in ice, which with an hour's heat Dissolves to water, and doth lose its form. Shak.

Trĕnch, v. i.

verbintransitive

v. i. 1. To encroach. See INTRENCH. 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. 2. To have direction; to aim or tend. [Rare.] To trench at, to make trenches against, as a town in besieging it. Like powerful armies, trenching at a town By slow and silent, but resistless, sap, In his pale progress, gently gaining ground, Death urged his deadly siege. Young.

Trēnch, n.

noun

n. [See supra. Fr. tranchée, Pr. trencada, Sp. trinchea, It. trincea.]

A long, narrow cut in the earth; a ditch; as, a trench for draining land.
(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.

To open the trenches (Mil.), to begin to dig, or to form the lines of approach.