Dictionary entry

Trench (2)

Webster's Dictionary 1913

Trench, v. i. 1. To encroach; to 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. Bacon.

To trench at, to make trenches against; to approach by trenches, as a town in besieging it.

Like powerful armies, trenching at a town

By slow and silent, but resistless, sap. Young.