retrench

1. (transitive) To cut down or reduce.Examples: "O conſider my caſe, moſt blisfull Queen, […] Diſpell thoſe Clouds which hover 'twixt my King and his higheſt Counſell, […] that my great Law-making Court be forced to turn no more to polemicall Committees, […] but that they may come again to the old Parliamentary Rode, To the path of their Predeceſſours, to conſult of means how to ſweep away thoſe Cobwebs that hang in the Courts of Juſtice, and to make the Laws run in their right Channell; to retrench exceſſive fees, and finde remedies for the future, that the poor Client be not ſo peeled by his Lawyer, and made to ſuffer by ſuch monſtrous delays, that one may go from one Tropick to the other, and croſſe the Equinoctiall twenty times, before his ſute be done; […]"; "Madam me no Madam, but learn to retrench your vvords; and ſay Mam; as yes Mam, and no Mam, as other Ladies VVomen do. Madam! 'tis a year in pronouncing."; "Foppiſh and fantaſtick Ornaments are only Indications of Vice, not criminal in themſelves. Extinguiſh Vanity in the Mind, and you naturally retrench the little Superfluities of Garniture and Equipage. The Bloſſoms will fall of themſelves, when the Root that nouriſhes them is deſtroyed."transitive

2. (transitive) To cut down or reduce.Examples: "This section prescribes that an employer shall ordinarily retrench the workman who was the last person to be employed in that category, unless for reasons to be recorded in writing, the employer retrenches any other workman."Synonyms: fire, let go, sack, axe, can, decruit, dehire, discardspecificallytransitive

3. (transitive) To confine; to limit; to restrict.Examples: "They say of God—That He spreadeth forth the heavens as a tent to dwell in; and that as a garment, some time hence, He shall roll them together. These figures, ought they then to receive a retrenched interpretation? Ought they to be denuded of their oriental garb? Not so, […]"transitive

4. (transitive, military) To furnish with a retrenchment (a defensive work within a fortification).Examples: "to retrench bastions"; "The Half-Moon is a Work always raiſed before the Baſtion's Point, being ſo named from the Lowneſs of its Gorges Cavity, &c. and is to ſecure the Two Faces of the Baſtion; but when the Faces have but a weak Defence from the Ravelin, theſe Works are ſoon made uſeleſs or ruined, and give the Beſieged an opportunity of Lodgment, and may ſerve for Batteries and Flanks againſt the oppoſing Baſtions; however they may be retrenched by Traverſes, yet they will not fail to attack entirely in the Face, or where you have your laſt Retrenchment, alſo that called the Counterguard runs the like Hazard."; "[I]f there is one Retrenchment in a Work, it is generally thought ſufficient; but it happens much oftener than there is none at all; ſo that one might be apt to think, a Defence like that we have been explaining is only chimerical, if the Sieges of Vienna and Candy, both by the Turks, were not inſtances of the contrary, where there was hardly an inch of Ground either within or without thoſe two Towns, as far as the Extremities of the Glacis, and even beyond them, but what was retrenched and countermined."transitive

5. (intransitive) To abridge; to curtail.Examples: "But this thy glory ſhall be ſoon retrench'd; / No more ſhalt thou by oracling abuſe / The Gentiles; henceforth Oracles are ceaſt, / And thou no more with Pomp and Sacrifice / Shalt by enquir'd at Delphos or elſewhere, / At leaſt in vain, for they ſhall find thee mute."; "Under the Obama doctrine, the United States accommodates and retrenches internationally in large part so the president can focus on leaving behind liberal domestic policy legacies. This entails targeted counterterrorist strikes and assertive foreign policy adjustments when necessary, but for the most part represents a shift from guns to butter, a downscaling of military weight and presence, and an avoidance of any heavy US footprint overseas—a strategy pursued both on its merits in [Barack] Obama's view and in orderto avert domestic political risk."intransitive

6. (intransitive) To take up a new defensive position.Examples: "We must retrench and try to hold on long enough for products in development to reach the market or we will be out of business."; "Whether we choose to live there or just retreat for a rest, the closet is a stronghold of gay life. Someday we'll force hets to deal with us out in the world, but for now, I guess it's better to retrench in the closet than never to come out at all."; "After retrenching itself in scholarship and literary imagination, Orientalism has moved on to conquer film, television and CD-ROMs. Nowadays, the subject of Orientalism is not limited to what is conventionally seen as the 'Orient' but also includes Europe, the home of its origins, itself."intransitive