▪ I. trencher1
(ˈtrɛn(t)ʃə(r))
Forms: 4–5 trencheour, -chour, 4 -chur, 4–6 -chor, 5 -chowre, trenschowre, -shoure, ? 4, 5– trencher, (6 Sc. trunsch(e)our, -owr, -zour), 7 trentcher.
[a. AF. trenchour = ONF. trencheor (1206 in Godef.), tren-, trancheur, = OF. tranchouoir (14th c. in Littré), trencheoir (Cotgr.), mod.F. tranchoir, f. † trenchier, trancher to cut, trench v., with suffix -oir, representing L. -ātorium. Godef. exemplifies the word in senses corresp. to both our branches I. and II.]
I. † 1. A cutting or slicing instrument; a knife.
| c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 166 Fulle broþely & brim he kept vp a trencheour, & kast it at Statin,..His nese & his ine he carfe at misauentoure. c 1400 Songs Costume (Percy Soc.) 50 My baselard hath a trencher kene, Fayr as rasour scharp and schene. c 1410 Master of Game (MS. Digby 182) xxxiii, With a sharpe trenshoure kut as thyk as he canne þe flessh a doune to þe necke bone. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 501/2 Trenchowre, knyfe. 1553 Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scotl. X. 204 For ane cais to put sylver trunscheouris in of my lord governoures. |
II. 2. A flat piece of wood, square or circular, on which meat was served and cut up; a plate or platter of wood, metal, or earthenware.
arch. and
Hist.| c 1308 Song Times in Pol. Songs (Camden) 204 A rowȝ bare trenchur, other a crust. 1360–70 Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 175 In j pare de Trenchours pro priore, xij s. 1505 in Exch. Rolls Scotl. XII. 673, xxiiij poter dischis, xxiiij saw[s]aris, xij trunzouris. 1529 Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. (1883) 177 A half galloun, a quart..a dische, a salsar and a trunscheour, extending to 13/4 stanis of puder. 1547 Bk. Marchauntes b ij, Thei mak them kisse a trenchor or a small platter of gold, siluer, or lead: which thei name the platine. 1573–80 Baret Alv. T 357 A Trencher to eate meate on,..A broad trencher..A round trencher. 1624 Capt. Smith Virginia iii. ii. 48 They imagined the world to be flat and round, like a trencher. 1696 Phillips (ed. 5), Trencher, a square, thin Plate of Wood, for People to cut their Meat upon. 1801 M. Edgeworth Angelina ii, The first dinner which she ate on wooden trenchers delighted her. 1895 Lyon Chron. Finchampstead 90 A very ancient oak table which had round places scooped out in it to receive a trencher or wooden basin for each person who dined at it. |
† 3. A slice of bread used instead of a plate or platter.
Obs.| c 1380 Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. I. 115 Siche whelpis shulden ete trenchours of lordis. 1392 Earl Derby's Exp. (Camden) 218 In pane pro trenchors, v duc. di. c 1430 Two Cookery-bks. 41 Take whyte Brede, & kytte to trenchours. 1490 Caxton Eneydos xxxiv. 121 They sette hemselfe atte dyner, & made trenchers of brede for to putte theyr mete vpon. 1513 Douglas æneis vii. iii. 26 Ne spair thai nocht at last..Their fatale four nukit trunschowris for to eit. |
4. a. A trencher and that which it bears; a supply of food;
cf. table 6 c.
arch.| 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. 238 What benefites are obteined, by the sweate of other mennes labours, and also by the fatte crumbes of other mennes trenchers. 1612 Dekker lf it be not good Wks. 1873 III. 280 Waite on the Priors Trencher soberly. 1659 W. Brough Schism 535 These new rabbis..are chaplains extraordinary to the trencher. 1667 L. Stucley Gospel-Glass xxii. (1670) 224 We have..brought our Children to live upon others trenchers. 1820 W. Irving Sketch Bk., Spectre Bridegroom, Even the poor relations paused for a moment from the indefatigable labours of the trencher. |
b. In proverbial phrases, chiefly of obvious meaning.
to lick the trencher, to toady; to play the parasite.
trim as a trencher: see
quot. 1542.
| 1542 Udall Erasm. Apophth. ii. 246 b, Fillyng vp as trymme as a trencher y⊇ space that stood voide. 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie iii. xxv. (Arb.) 307 To speake faire to a mans face, and foule behinde his backe, to set him at his trencher and yet sit on his skirts. 1602 [see lick v. 1 b]. 1649 Bp. Hall Cases Consc. iii. iii. (1654) 189 Carve you for your selfe and looke to your owne trencher. 1692 Washington tr. Milton's Def. Pop. viii. M.'s Wks. 1851 VIII. 185 You were there a few years ago, and began to lick a Cardinal's Trencher. 1852 Thackeray Esmond ii. xv, He will be at Roncq time enough to lick my Lord Duke's trenchers at supper. |
5. transf. A flat board, circular or otherwise.
| c 1511 1st Eng. Bk. Amer. (Arb.) Introd. 28/1 That Lande is so full of sande yat they muste goo vpon brode trenchers that they falle not & synke. 1669 Boyle Contn. New Exp. i. xli. (1682) 144 In the midst of the fixed Trencher (as we call a piece of solid wood shap'd like a Milstone). 1710 J. Clarke Rohault's Nat. Phil. (1729) I. 61 Water in a Pail is made to ascend up a Trunk, such as they shoot with, open at both Ends, and one End fixed in a Hole in a Trencher which exactly fits the whole Superficies; upon depressing the Trencher, the Water is forced up. 1825 Scott Talism. vi, At the barriers, when swords are blunted at point and edge, and spears are tipped with trenchers of wood, instead of steel pikes. 1889 Harper's Mag. Jan. 238/2 He next binds his [beaver] trap to a flat stone ‘about the size of a teakettle’, opens the jaws, and arranges the ‘trencher’, as the pan is called, pressure on which springs the trap. |
b. Applied to a butcher's ‘tray’.
| 1903 F. Markham Recoll. Town Boy Westminster 97 The butcher had his long trencher in which he carried his meat about. |
6. spec. = trencher-cap.
| 1834 [implied in trencherless: see below]. 1848 Thackeray Bk. Snobs xiv, [The Master of a College's] crawler would have no objection to carry his trencher. 1862 Mrs. H. Wood Channings i, The boys began to file out, putting on their trenchers, as they clattered down the steps. 1906 Daily Chron. 26 Sept. 5/6 The girl students..in their red gowns and trenchers adorned with a red tassel. |
7. attrib. and
Comb. a. simple
attrib., as
trencher-basket,
trencher-food,
trencher-house,
trencher-room,
trencher-side; in sense 4, or in allusion to presence or entertainment at the table of a patron, as
trencher-analect,
trencher-art,
trencher-attendant,
trencher-buffoon,
trencher-companion,
trencher-critic,
trencher-fury,
trencher-hero,
trencher-knight,
trencher-labourer,
trencher-law,
trencher-mate,
trencher-philosopher,
trencher-poetry,
trencher-rascal,
trencher-saint,
trencher-schoolmaster,
trencher-service,
trencher-slave,
trencher-squire,
trencher-waiter.
b. objective, etc., as
trencher-carrier,
trencher-licker (see 4 b),
trencher-maker,
trencher-making,
trencher-scraper,
trencher-shifter; also
trencher-like adj. c. Special
Combs.:
trencher-beard, a beard resembling a trencher,
i.e. large, flat, and square or round;
† trencher-bread, bread made of unbolted flour for use as trenchers (sense 3);
Obs. exc. Hist.;
trencher-coat, in gilding: see quotation;
trencher-fed a., of fox-hounds: kept and fed by the several owners or members of the hunt, as distinguished from a pack that is kept in the hunt kennels;
† trencher-fee, scraps of food given in alms;
† trencher-knife, a pantry knife for cutting bread into ‘trenchers’;
† trencher-loaf,
cf. trencher-bread;
trencher-plate, a plate shaped like or used as a trencher;
spec. in
Ceramics, a flat earthenware plate with a narrow rim; also (
collective) plate or precious metal of which trenchers were made;
trencher-salt,
-salt-cellar, a small salt-cellar placed near a guest's trencher at table;
trencher table, a table at which members of domestic staff were seated at meal times;
trencher-time, dinner-time, meal-time. See also
trencher-cap, -chaplain, etc.
| a 1643 W. Cartwright Ordinary iii. v, No gleanings, James? No *trencher-analects? |
| a 1661 B. Holyday Juvenal (1673) 64 No man to rarer *trencher-art aspir'd. |
| 1592 Nashe Four Lett. Confut. Wks. (Grosart) II. 224 Your *trenchor attendant..intends to tickle vp a Treatise of the barly kurnell, which you set in your garden. |
| 1630 Maldon, Essex, Documents Bundle 217 No. 22, 1 *trentcher basket 6d. |
| a 1668 Davenant News fr. Plymouth Wks. (1673) 3 Her Parent With a soure brow, and *Trencher Beard. |
| c 1460 J. Russell Bk. Nurture 56 *Trencher bred iiij. dayes [old] is convenyent & agreable. 1882 F. Michel Crit. Inquiry into Scottish Lang. iii. 54 [Edinburgh] citizens had four different kinds of wheaten bread: the finest called manchet, the second cheat or trencher bread. 1974 Trencher-bread [see jumbal, jumble]. |
| 1596 Nashe Saffron Walden Wks. (Grosart) III. 143 He was to make a iourney to London..to haue his blue coate (being destitute of euer another *trencher-carrier) credit him vp, though it were thrid bare. |
| 1847–78 Halliwell, *Trencher-cloak, a kind of cloak worn formerly by servants and apprentices. |
| 1839 Ure Dict. Arts 613 Coat of assiette; *trencher coat. This is the composition on which the gold is to be laid. |
| 1816 Scott Old Mort. iii[i], The ci-devant laird, once his patron, but now glad to be his *trencher-companion. |
| 1598 Bp. Hall Sat. iv. iv. 23 Neuer haue I Salerne rimes profest To be some Ladies *trencher-criticke guest. |
| 1887 A. E. Pease (title) The Cleveland Hounds as a *Trencher-Fed Pack. 1892 Daily Tel. 27 Aug., The oldest pack of regular, as distinguished from trencher-fed foxhounds. |
| 1641 Brome Jov. Crew iii. Wks. 1873 III. 396 Dainty *Trencher-Fees, from a Gentleman's house; Such as the Serving-men themselves, sometimes, Would have been glad of. |
| 1642 H. More Song of Soul i. ii. lxxx, Our mind cannot attend our *trencher-food. |
| 1641 Milton Ch. Govt. ii. Wks. 1851 III. 149 A work..like that which flows at wast from..the *trencher fury of a riming parasite. |
| 1607 G. Wilkins Miseries Enforced Marr. v. I iv, You knaue Slaue—*trencher-groome. Who is your maister? |
| 1792 Wolcott (P. Pindar) Churchwarden iv. Wks. 1812 III. 111 The *Trencher Heroes hate All Obstacles that keep them from the plate. |
| 1691 Case of Exeter Coll. 18 A little Room in the Colledge, called the *Trencher-house. |
| 1392–3 Earl Derby's Exp. (Camden) 195 Clerico panetrie per manus eiusdem, pro j *trenchurknyff per ipsum empto. 1459 Paston Lett. I. 488 Item, j. trencher knyfe. |
| 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. v. ii. 464 Some mumble-newes, some *trencher-knight. |
| 1654 Whitlock Zootomia 506 This *Trencher-labourer will not drink with that Divine. |
| 1597–8 Bp. Hall Sat. iv. iv. 21 When splenish morsels cram the gaping Maw, Withouten diets care, or *trencher-law. |
| 1812 W. Tennant Anster F. iv. i, A *trencher-licker in Apollo's court. |
| 1727 Bradley's Fam. Dict. s.v. Blowing of Flower, To shade it..with a *Trencher-like Board, or some other Device. |
| c 1460 J. Russell Bk. Nurture 197, viij. louys bred with iij. or iiij. *trenchere lovis. |
| 1588 in Lyon Chron. Finchampstead (1895) 212 James Redinge of Fynchamsted in the County of Barkes *Trenchermaker. 1733 W. Ellis Chiltern & Vale Farm. 98 The Trencher-maker is..cautious of getting the Sap out of this Wood. |
| 1815 Scott Guy M. vii, The art of *trencher-making, of manufacturing horn-spoons, and the whole mystery of the tinker. |
| 1597 Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. ii. §2 These *trencher-mates..frame to themselues a way more pleasant. |
| 1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. i. iii. §9 Those *Trencher Philosophers, which, in the later age of the Romane State, were vsually in the houses of great persons. |
| 1580 Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, Vne Assiette & trencheoir, a *trencher plate. 1625 in Rymer Fœdera (1726) XVIII. 239/1 Sixe Trencher Plates of Goulde with Armes. 1641 in Rushw. Hist. Coll. iii. (1692) I. 281 For the relieving the present Necessity of Money, a Proportion of Plate should be melted for Coyn; and that the same shall be Trencher-Plate, and Dish-Plate. |
| 1597–8 Bp. Hall Sat. i. i. 13 Such hunger-starven *trencher-poetrie. |
| 1610 B. Jonson Alch. i. i, Away, you *trencher-raskall. |
| 1691 Case of Exeter Coll. 8 And then she went to the *Trencher Room. |
| 1649 G. Daniel Trinarch., Hen. V, lix, These *Trencher-S{supt}{sups}; full⁓paunch't Boetians. |
| 1614 T. Tomkis Albumazar v. i. K j b, Alb. Shall I haue nothing? Ron. No, not a siluer spoone. Fur. Nor couer of a *Trencher-salt. 1625 in Rymer Fœdera (1726) XVIII. 238/2 A Trencher Salte of Golde in Forme of a Castle. 1967 Times 24 Feb. 14/6 The most unusual objects in a silver sale at Sotheby's yesterday were two miniature trencher salts, 11/4in. diameter and weighing only to 10 dwt. by George Middleton, 1864. 1970 Canad. Antiques Collector Mar. 23/1 Salt cellars were made in many shapes, starting with plain, round or oblong, so⁓called trencher salts in the early 1700's. |
| 1681 Lond. Gaz. No. 1614/4 Two Silver *Trencher-Saltsellers, being marked within side S.W.E. |
| 1609 Sir. E. Hoby Let. to T. H[iggons] 23 The multiplicitie of Schools, needlesse Lecturers, and *trencher Schoole⁓masters. |
| 1650 Weldon Crt. Jas. I (1651) 34 He had starved, had not a *Trencher-scraper, sometime his servant..releived him with scraps. |
| 1594 Nashe Unfort. Trav. Wks. (Grosart) V. 27 My state, you are not ignorant, depends on *trencher seruice. |
| 1829 Scott Ho. Aspen ii. ii, Here's much to do about an old crazy *trencher-shifter. |
| 1571 Golding Calvin on Ps. To Rdr. 9 There bee also certein *trencher-slaves, of whom David complaineth. 1617 Moryson Itin. iii. 113 The English were neuer more idle,..neuer more base..trencher slaues, then in that age, wherein great men keept open houses for all commers. |
| 1706 J. Dunton Life & Err. (1818) II. xiii. 485 Thou art a *Trencher-snake, a swallow-guest. |
| 1628 Shirley Witty Fair One i. iii, How now, my officious *trencher-squire? 1692 R. L'Estrange Fables xxxiv, Trencher-Squires, that spend their time in Hopping from One Great man's Table to Anothers. |
| 1968 Canad. Antiques Collector June 9/1 Dinner..was served on two tables. One was at floor level—the ‘*trencher’ table—where the steward, the curate, the governess and members of the staff were seated. 1977 D. E. Westlake Nobody's Perfect ii. iii. 110 Ratty pieces of living-room furniture..and an old trencher table. |
| 1846 Landor Exam. Shaks. Wks. II. 280/1 Did he discourse at all at *trencher-time? |
| 1638 Ford Lady's Trial ii. ii, In your girl's days, you fell, forsooth, In love, and married..A *trencher-waiter. |
Hence
ˈtrencherful, as much as a trencher will hold;
ˈtrencherless a., without a trencher (in
quot. a trencher-cap).
| 1660 Pepys Diary 16 Feb., We went to the Sun Taverne in expectation of a dinner, where we had sent us only *trencherfulls of meat. 1883 Gilmour Mongols xxi. 266 A trencherful of hard sour masses of material. |
| 1834 Blackw. Mag. XXXVI. 779 Pozzlethwayte was..cravat-less, hat-less, *trencher-less, and, alas! wig-less. |
▪ II. trencher2 (
ˈtrɛn(t)ʃə(r))
[f. trench v. + -er1.] One who trenches.
† 1. One who carves; a carver.
Obs. rare.
| a 1625 Fletcher Noble Gent. iii. i, I was not born, I take it, for a trencher, Nor to espouse my mistress' dairy-maid. |
2. One who cuts or digs trenches; one who trenches ground.
| 1871 Blackie Four Phases i. 83 The trencher of the moral soil, not the planter of the seed. 1875 W. Alexander Sk. Life among Ain Folk 188 A ‘tramp’ to save the sole of his boot while operating as trencher or drainer. 1875 tr. Comte de Paris' Civ. War Amer. I. 397 All these works were executed by the soldiers, who showed themselves excellent trenchers. |
Add:
3. A machine (
usu. self-propelled) or attachment used in digging trenches.
| 1947 Highway Engineer's Ref. Bk. 314/1 (caption) ‘Seven’ excavator, with back-acting trencher attachment, at work. 1967 A. Troitsky tr. Abrosimov's Road-Making Machinery iv. 349 Trenchers are differentiated by the cutting depth, chain quarry ditchers by the capacity of the buckets. 1979 Civil Engineering Nov. 68/4 The trencher attachment digs down to 24in. 1986 Offshore Engineer Sept. 75/3 Allseas' new trencher also made a satisfactory maiden voyage on 7 km of Placid 355mm dia gas line. |