What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Trench vs Rift - What's the difference?

trench | rift | Related terms |

As nouns the difference between trench and rift

is that trench is a long, narrow ditch or hole dug in the ground while rift is a chasm or fissure.

As verbs the difference between trench and rift

is that trench is to invade, especially with regard to the rights or the exclusive authority of another; to encroach while rift is to form a rift.

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
    ----

    rift

    English

    (wikipedia rift)

    Etymology 1

    Middle English, of Scandinavian origin; akin to Danish/Norwegian '' 'breach', Old Norse ''rífa 'to tear'. More at rive.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A chasm or fissure.
  • My marriage is in trouble, the fight created a rift between us and we can't reconnect.
    The Grand Canyon is a rift in the Earth's surface, but is smaller than some of the undersea ones.
  • A break in the clouds, fog, mist etc., which allows light through.
  • * 1931 , William Faulkner, Sanctuary , Vintage 1993, page 130:
  • I have but one rift in the darkness, that is that I have injured no one save myself by my folly, and that the extent of that folly you will never learn.
  • A shallow place in a stream; a ford.
  • Verb

    (en verb)
  • To form a .
  • To cleave; to rive; to split.
  • to rift an oak
  • * Wordsworth
  • To dwell these rifted rocks between.

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) rypta.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To belch.
  • Etymology 3

    Verb

    (head)
  • (Spenser)

    Anagrams

    * * ----