| 释义 |
trench
I. \ˈtrench\ noun
(-es)
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English trenche track cut through a wood, from Middle French, act of cutting, cut, from trenchier to cut
1.
a. : a long narrow cut in the ground : ditch, fosse
< dig a trench for sewer pipe >
b. : a long narrow excavation used for military defense and often having the excavated dirt mounded up in front of it as an earthwork — compare approach trench, bunker, dugout, fire trench, parallel 1c, slit trench
c. obsolete : a protective earthwork
< resolved that the ditches … should be deepened, and the trenches heightened — Fynes Moryson >
2. : something that resembles a trench: as
a. archaic : furrow, groove
< these trenches made by grief and care — Shakespeare >
b. : firing line 2
< in the cultural struggle … schools are the frontline trenches — Paul Blanshard >
3.
a. : a narrow steep-sided depression eroded by a stream : canyon, gully
b. : a long straight comparatively narrow intermontane depression often occupied by parts of two or more drainage systems : trough
c. : a long narrow steep-sided depression in an ocean floor : ocean deep — compare canyon
II. verb
(-ed/-ing/-es)
Etymology: in sense 1, from Middle French trenchier to cut, cut across, trench, probably modification of Latin truncare to cut off; in other senses, partly from Middle English trenche, n. and partly from Middle French trenchier — more at truncate
transitive verb
1.
a. : to make a cut in : carve, incise
< inscriptions … trenched in one of the stones — John Webb >
< surface trenching at numerous points on the … outcrop — W.H.A.Lawrence >
b. obsolete : to make a gash in : slash
< the wide wound, that the boar had trenched in his soft flank — Shakespeare >
2.
a.
(1) : to dig a protective trench in
< trench a hill >
(2) : to protect with or as if with a trench
< trench an outpost >
b. : to turn over (soil) two or more times the depth of a spade
c.
(1) : to cut a drainage trench in : ditch
< trench land to drain it >
(2) : to drain by trenches
d. : to bury in or confine by means of a trench
< trenching logs to prevent rolling — Glossary of Terms Used in Forest Fire Control >
< stopping more than 3000 small fires and trenching in nearly 100 big ones — W.B.Greeley >
e. : entrench 2
intransitive verb
1.
a. obsolete : to approach a military objective by a series of trenches
< like powerful armies trenching at a town — Edward Young >
b. archaic : to extend out : stretch
< the land trenched away west for fifteen hundred miles — Daniel Defoe >
2.
a. : entrench 2
< trenching on other domains which were more vital — Sir Winston Churchill >
b. : to come close : verge
< catches himself … trenching upon presumption — T.V.Smith >
3. : to dig a trench
< trench around the spot right down to the clay — Sydney (Australia) Bulletin > |