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.
The wide wound that the boar had trenched
In his soft flank. Shak.
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.
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.
No more shall trenching war channel her fields. Shak.
3. To cut furrows or ditches in; as, to trench land for the purpose of draining it.
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.