1. (v. t.) To cut; to form or shape by cutting; to make by incision, hewing, or the like.

2. (v. t.) To fortify by cutting a ditch, and raising a rampart or breastwork with the earth thrown out of the ditch; to entrench.

3. (v. t.) To cut furrows or ditches in; as, to trench land for the purpose of draining it.

4. (v. t.) 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.

5. (v. i.) To encroach; to entrench.

6. (v. i.) To have direction; to aim or tend.

7. (n.) A long, narrow cut in the earth; a ditch; as, a trench for draining land.

8. (n.) An alley; a narrow path or walk cut through woods, shrubbery, or the like.

9. (n.) An excavation made during a siege, for the purpose of covering the troops as they advance toward the besieged place. The term includes the parallels and the approaches.