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Trench vs Dig - What's the difference?

trench | dig | Related terms |

Trench is a related term of dig.


As nouns the difference between trench and dig

is that trench is a long, narrow ditch or hole dug in the ground while dig is ditch, dyke.

As a verb trench

is (usually|followed by upon) to invade, especially with regard to the rights or the exclusive authority of another; to encroach.

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

    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
    ----

    dig

    English

    (wikipedia dig)

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) , from (etyl) (m), itself a borrowing of the same Germanic root (from (etyl) (m)). More at ditch, dike.

    Verb

  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=8 , passage=Miss Thorn began digging up the turf with her lofter: it was a painful moment for me. ¶ “You might at least have tried me, Mrs. Cooke,” I said.}}
  • (label) To get by digging; to take from the ground; often with up .
  • (label) To take ore from its bed, in distinction from making excavations in search of ore.
  • To work like a digger; to study ploddingly and laboriously.
  • (label) To investigate, to research, often followed by out'' or ''up .
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=September-October, author=(Henry Petroski)
  • , magazine=(American Scientist), title= The Evolution of Eyeglasses , passage=Digging deeper, the invention of eyeglasses is an elaboration of the more fundamental development of optics technology. The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone, essentially what today we might term a frameless magnifying glass or plain glass paperweight.}}
  • To thrust; to poke.
  • * Robynson (More's Utopia)
  • You should have seen children dig and push their mothers under the sides, saying thus to them: Look, mother, how great a lubber doth yet wear pearls.
    Derived terms
    * dig in * dig into * dig over * dig out * dig up

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An archeological investigation.
  • (US, colloquial, dated) A plodding and laborious student.
  • A thrust; a poke.
  • He guffawed and gave me a dig in the ribs after telling his latest joke.
  • Synonyms
    * (archaeological investigation) excavation

    Etymology 2

    From (African American Vernacular English); due to lack of writing of slave speech, etymology is .Random House Unabridged, 2001 Others do not propose a distinct etymology, instead considering this a semantic shift of the existing English term (compare dig in/dig into'').eg: OED, "dig", from ME vt ''diggen

    Verb

  • (slang) To understand or show interest in.
  • You dig ?
  • (slang) To appreciate, or like.
  • Baby, I dig you.

    References