Trench Meaning
/ˈtɹɛnt͡ʃ/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA long, narrow ditch or hole dug in the ground.
nounA long, narrow ditch or hole in the ground; either manmade, or formed naturally through erosion or tectonic plate movement.
Sentence Examples
After we finish digging the trench, planting the flowers will be easy.
Trench warfare characterized the 1914-1918 War.
Both Tom and Mary were wearing trench coats.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The soldiers dug a deep ____ to protect themselves from enemy fire.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The workers dug a deep ____ along the side of the road to install the new water pipes early this morning today.
Word Origin & History
Borrowed into Middle English from Old French trenche. Doublet of tranche and traunch. Possible doublet of English: truncate
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"The milling action of the bucket line enables the trencher to cut through difficult materials, such as stone rubble and brick filling, and to leave a good trench with clean side walls."
— 1956 January, “New Permanent Way Equipment on British Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 57:
"Figure 114 shows how pegs driven into the bottom of a foundation trench to establish a horizontal level for the concreter to work to, can be levelled with a boning rod held upright on the pages at either end of the trench."
— 1981, Peter Brett, Carpentry and Joinery for Building Craft Students, →ISBN:
"Following in the tank's wake, the cameliers reached the first line of Turkish trenches, where they confronted a handful of Ottoman soldiers too wounded to retreat."
— 2015, Eugene Rogan, The Fall of the Ottomans, Penguin, published 2016, page 331:
"Shee is the Judge, Thou Executioner, Or if thou needs would'st trench upon her power, Thou mightst have yet enjoy'd thy crueltie, With some more thrift, and more varietie."
— 1640, Ben Jonson, Underwoods, page 68:
"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?"
— 1832, [Isaac Taylor], Saturday Evening. […], London: Holdsworth and Ball, →OCLC:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The soldiers dug a deep ____ to protect themselves from enemy fire.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The workers dug a deep ____ along the side of the road to install the new water pipes early this morning today.