trenching

1 definition found

trenching - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  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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