The Collaborative International Dictionary
Intrench \In*trench"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Intrenched; p. pr. & vb. n. Intrenching.]
-
To cut in; to furrow; to make trenches in or upon.
It was this very sword intrenched it.
--Shak.His face Deep scars of thunder had intrenched.
--Milton. To surround with a trench or with intrenchments, as in fortification; to fortify with a ditch and parapet; as, the army intrenched their camp, or intrenched itself. ``In the suburbs close intrenched.''
--Shak.
Intrench \In*trench"\, v. i. To invade; to encroach; to infringe or trespass; to enter on, and take possession of, that which belongs to another; -- usually followed by on or upon; as, the king was charged with intrenching on the rights of the nobles, and the nobles were accused of intrenching on the prerogative of the crown.
We are not to intrench upon truth in any conversation,
but least of all with children.
--Locke.
Wiktionary
vb. (alternative form of entrench English)
WordNet
v. fix firmly or securely [syn: entrench]
Usage examples of "intrench".
Arab menaces Medina, The Aethiop has intrenched himself in Sennaar, And keeps the Egyptian rebel well employed, Who denies homage, claims investiture As price of tardy aid.
General Cornwallis wanted Colonel Donop to retire, but the colonel stayed where he was and intrenched himself.
The confederate army passed the Moselle and the Saar in the beginning of June, and encamped at Elft in sight of the enemy, who retired with great precipitation, and intrenched themselves in the neighbourhood of Coningsmarcheren.
Appointment of Hamilcar Barca to the Carthaginian command 75 He intrenches himself on Mount Hercte, near Panormus 75 He removes to Mount Eryx 75 241.
Brigade, however, passed beyond Lawton on the night of the 23d-24th, thus taking the advance, and on the morning of the latter date became engaged with a Spanish force intrenched in a strong position at La Guasima, a point on the Santiago road about three miles from Siboney.
Each commander will take precaution to conceal his outguard and will generally strengthen his position by intrenching.
General de Lorencez, after an unsuccessful attack upon the walls of Puebla, had been compelled to retreat toward Orizaba, and to intrench there while waiting for reenforcements.
The Russians, consisting, as we before observed, of eighty thousand regulars, under the command of mareschal Apraxin, avoiding the open field, were intrenched in a most advantageous camp near Norkitten in Prussia.
The king of France, with his general the count de Saxe, took the field in the latter end of April, at the head of one hundred and twenty thousand men, and advanced towards the allies, who, to the number of four-and-forty thousand, were intrenched behind the Demer under the conduct of the Austrian general Bathiani, who retired before them, and took post in the neighbourhood of Breda, the capital of Dutch Brabant.
Under the hook of the swart sickleman, The band, intrenched in mounds of Turkish dead, Grew weak and few.
The obscure schemers of ten years ago have become big financiers, intrenched behind their money-bags as behind an impregnable fort.
He made a gesture, pointing back to the ditch, showing the intrenched Leaguers to the posse.
But finding it well intrenched, strongly fortified by nature, and the ramparts covered with armed soldiers, he did not think proper that his troops, who were very much fatigued both by their march and the late battle, should attack it.
He was besides well intrenched with a high rampart and deep ditch, the approaches to which were rendered so difficult by the sharp spikes which he had disposed in a very skillful manner, that they were even sufficient of themselves to keep off the enemy.
Odoacer again appeared master of the field, and the invader, strongly intrenched in his camp of Pavia, was reduced to solicit the aid of a kindred nation, the Visigoths of Gaul.