RETRENCH • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Retrench

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verb

Retrench v. t. (past & past part. retrenched; pres. part. retrenching)

To cut off; to pare away. "Thy exuberant parts retrench."

To lessen; to abridge; to curtail; as, to retrench superfluities or expenses. "But this thy glory shall be soon retrenched."

To confine; to limit; to restrict. "These figures, ought they then to receive a retrenched interpretation?"

(Fort.) To furnish with a retrenchment; as, to retrench bastions.

Synonyms: To lesen; diminish; curtail; abridge.

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Etymology of 'Retrench'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Retrench" Quotes from Famous Books

... truthful? "This intelligent woman, far from being too much heeded, was not enough so. There was in her a veritable love for the public welfare, a true sorrow in the midst of our misfortunes. To-day, it is necessary to retrench much from the grandeur of her worldly power and add a great deal to that of her soul." M. Saint-Amand believes her sincere when she wrote ...

— Women of Modern France - Woman In All Ages And In All Countries • Hugo P. Thieme

... thoughtful and crestfallen. My money was nearly spent, for I had lived freely and without calculation. The dream of love was over, and the reign of pleasure at an end. I determined to retrench while I had yet a trifle left; so selling my equipage and horses for half their value, I quietly put the money in my pocket and turned pedestrian. I had not a doubt that, with my great expectations, I could at any time raise funds, either on usury or by borrowing; ...

— Tales of a Traveller • Washington Irving

... in these days many who will mock; but for my part I am proud of a race whose social relations are the last upon which they will retrench, whose latest yielded pleasure is their hospitality. It is a common feeling that only the WELL-TO-DO have a right to be hospitable: the ideal flower of hospitality is almost unknown to the rich; it can hardly be ...

— What's Mine's Mine • George MacDonald

... chambermaid had been dismissed, and the cook was given her choice to retrench in the enormous waste or find a ...

— Marguerite Verne • Agatha Armour

... herself with a devotion of mere sentiment and imagination. Our Lord, she said, assumed our nature, that He might become our Model. In every condition, we can imitate Him by the practice of His maxims, which not only discover to us what we have to retrench and correct in our lives and conduct, but also guide us to the means of accomplishing that difficult work of self-correction. Devotion that is not practical, seemed to her, she said, like an ...

— The Life of the Venerable Mother Mary of the Incarnation • "A Religious of the Ursuline Community"

... as the present difficulty was surmounted, to make another attempt to open the eyes of Mrs Harrel to the evils which so apparently threatened her, and press her to exert all her influence with her husband, by means both of example and advice, to retrench his expences before it should be absolutely too late ...

— Cecilia Volume 1 • Frances Burney

Words linked to "Retrench" : bring down, trim back, reduce, cut, retrenchment, trim down, economize, cut back, conserve