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What is "trenchant"

Crossword clues for trenchant

trenchant
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
trenchant
adjective
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Brown's article contains trenchant social criticism.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Direct, trenchant writing came naturally, effective public speaking later.
▪ His writing and reflections, in fact, are not just trenchant but at times witty, even amusing.
▪ I had to tell some one about Cleve-find something trenchant and important about him and tell some one.
▪ It was the language of purity which mobilized many women to develop a trenchant critique of male sexuality.
▪ The trenchant symbolism of his pictures is essentially alien to the Dada conception of randomness and fortuitous juxtaposition.
▪ The reviewer however is not a trenchant imperialist.
▪ The two had much in common: conceit, fame, unorthodox pulpit manners and a trenchant belief in liberal progress.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Trenchant

Trenchant \Trench"ant\, a. [OF. trenchant, F. tranchant, p. pr. See Trench, v. t.]

  1. Fitted to trench or cut; gutting; sharp. `` Trenchant was the blade.''
    --Chaucer.

  2. Fig.: Keen; biting; severe; as, trenchant wit.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
trenchant

early 14c., "cutting, sharp," from Old French trenchant "cutting, sharp" (literal and figurative), present participle of trenchier "to cut" (see trench). Figurative sense in English is from c.1600.

Wiktionary
trenchant

a. 1 (context obsolete English) Fitted to trench or cut; gutting; sharp. 2 (context figuratively English) keen; bite; vigorously effective and articulate; severe; as, trenchant wit.

WordNet
trenchant

  1. adj. having keenness and forcefulness and penetration in thought, expression, or intellect; "searching insights"; "trenchant criticism" [syn: searching]

  2. characterized by or full of force and vigor; "a hard-hitting expose"; "a trenchant argument" [syn: hard-hitting]

  3. clearly or sharply defined to the mind; "clear-cut evidence of tampering"; "Claudius was the first to invade Britain with distinct...intentions of conquest"; "trenchant distinctions between right and wrong" [syn: clear-cut, distinct]

Usage examples of "trenchant".

Risingh, nimbly raising his sword, warded it off so narrowly, that, glancing on one side, it shaved away a huge canteen in which he carried his liquor,--thence pursuing its trenchant course, it severed off a deep coat-pocket, stored with bread and cheese,--which provant, rolling among the armies, occasioned a fearful scrambling between the Swedes and Dutchmen, and made the general battle to wax more furious than ever.

She eyed him with the glance of a predatory beast for its prey, and Kemball, who would ordinarily have replied to such a suggestion with a trenchant reference to his teacherless class, sat down on the edge of the nearest chair and waited to hear what she had to say.

In talking he always paced the room, hands in pockets, and at times fairly stammered in his endeavour to hit upon sufficiently trenchant epithets or comparisons.

Peace, on which occasions a half column of trenchant English supported by an apposite classical quotation impressed Sir Willoughby with the value of such a secretary in a controversy.

Keen reader of emotions as he was, he had not failed to note a distinct change in the drawly voice, a sound of something hard and trenchant in the flippant laugh, ever since Marguerite's name was first mentioned.

He marked four of them for further consideration husband-and-wife pilots from the battle cruiser Liberty, a female crew chief who died fighting the hangar fire aboard Venture, and the Hassarian captain of the ill-fated Trenchant.

On foot, alone, undaunted, high-souled, with but a simple sword, and that no trenchant blade of the Perrillo brand, a shield, but no bright polished steel one, there stoodst thou, biding and awaiting the two fiercest lions that Africa's forests ever bred!