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Gutter vs Trench - What's the difference?

gutter | trench | Related terms |

As nouns the difference between gutter and trench

is that gutter is a prepared channel in a surface, especially at the side of a road adjacent to a curb, intended for the drainage of water while trench is a long, narrow ditch or hole dug in the ground.

As verbs the difference between gutter and trench

is that gutter is to flow or stream; to form gutters while trench is to invade, especially with regard to the rights or the exclusive authority of another; to encroach.

gutter

English

(Street gutter)

Etymology 1

(etyl) gotere, from (etyl) goutiere (French

Noun

(en noun)
  • A prepared channel in a surface, especially at the side of a road adjacent to a curb, intended for the drainage of water.
  • *
  • A ditch along the side of a road.
  • *
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  • A duct or channel beneath the eaves of a building to carry rain water; eavestrough.
    • The gutters must be cleared of leaves a few times a year.
  • A groove down the sides of a bowling lane.
  • A large groove (commonly behind animals) in a barn used for the collection and removal of animal excrement.
  • Any narrow channel or groove, such as one formed by erosion in the vent of a gun from repeated firing.
  • A space between printed columns of text.
  • (philately) An unprinted space between rows of stamps.
  • (British) A drainage channel.
  • The notional locus of things, acts, or events which are distasteful, ill bred or morally questionable.
  • (figuratively) A low, vulgar state.
    • Get your mind out of the gutter .
    What kind of gutter language is that? I ought to wash your mouth out with soap.
    Derived terms
    * gutter ball, gutterball * gutter member * guttermouth * gutter plane * guttersnipe * gutter stick
    See also
    (pedia) * gout

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To flow or stream; to form gutters.
  • (of a candle) To melt away by having the molten wax run down along the side of the candle.
  • (of a small flame) To flicker as if about to be extinguished.
  • To send (a bowling ball) into the gutter, not hitting any pins.
  • To supply with a gutter or gutters.
    • (Dryden)
  • To cut or form into small longitudinal hollows; to channel.
    • (Shakespeare)

    Etymology 2

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • One who or that which guts.
  • * 1921 , Bernie Babcock, The Coming of the King (page 151)
    • A Galilean Rabbi? When did this Province of diggers in dirt and gutters of fish send forth Rabbis? Thou makest a jest.
  • * 2013 , Don Keith, ?Shelley Stewart, Mattie C.'s Boy: The Shelley Stewart Story (page 34)
    • An old, rusty coat hanger made a rudimentary fish-gutter .
    ----

    trench

    English

    (wikipedia trench)

    Noun

    (es)
  • A long, narrow ditch or hole dug in the ground.
  • (military) A narrow excavation as used in warfare, as a cover for besieging or emplaced forces.
  • (archaeology) A pit, usually rectangular with smooth walls and floor, excavated during an archaeological investigation.
  • (informal) A trench coat.
  • * 1999 , April 24, Xiphias Gladius , "Re: trenchcoat mafia", ne.general.selected , Usenet:
    • I was the first person in my high school to wear a trench' and fedora constantly, and Ben was one of the first to wear a black ' trench .
  • * 2007 , (Nina Garcia), The Little Black Book of Style'', HarperCollins, as excerpted in , October, page 138:
    • A classic trench can work in any kind of weather and goes well with almost anything.

    Derived terms

    * * entrench * in the trenches * trench boot * trench coat * trench knife * trench mortar * trench mouth * trench warfare

    Related terms

    * tranche

    Verb

    (es)
  • (usually, followed by upon) To invade, especially with regard to the rights or the exclusive authority of another; to encroach.
  • * 1640 , (Ben Jonson), Underwoods , page 68:
    • Shee is the Judge, Thou Executioner, Or if thou needs would'st trench upon her power, Thou mightst have yet enjoy'd thy crueltie, With some more thrift, and more varietie.
  • * I. Taylor
    • 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?
  • * 1949 , (Charles Austin Beard), American Government and Politics , page 16:
    • He could make what laws he pleased, as long as those laws did not trench upon property rights.
  • * 2005 , Carl von Clausewitz, J. J. Graham, On War , page 261:
    • [O]ur ideas, therefore, must trench upon the province of tactics.
  • (military, infantry) To excavate an elongated pit for protection of soldiers and or equipment, usually perpendicular to the line of sight toward the enemy.
  • * Shakespeare
    • No more shall trenching war channel her fields.
    (Alexander Pope)
  • (archaeology) To excavate an elongated and often narrow pit.
  • To have direction; to aim or tend.
    • (Francis Bacon)
  • To cut; to form or shape by cutting; to make by incision, hewing, etc.
  • * Shakespeare
    • The wide wound that the boar had trenched / In his soft flank.
  • * Shakespeare
    • 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.
  • To cut furrows or ditches in.
    • to trench land for the purpose of draining it
  • To dig or cultivate very deeply, usually by digging parallel contiguous trenches in succession, filling each from the next.
    • to trench a garden for certain crops
    ----