Dictionary

trenchant en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• (US) audio
• /ˈtɹɛnʃənt/

Etymology

Borrowed into Middle English from Old French trenchant, the present participle of trenchier (“to cut”).

Meanings

1. (archaic) Fitted to trench or cut; gutting; sharp.
   • The trenchant blade, Toledo trusty, / For want of fighting was grown rusty, / And ate into itself, for lack / Of somebody to hew and hack. 1663, Samuel Butler, Hudibras, part 1, canto 1:
2. (archaic, of teeth) Fitted to trench or cut; gutting; sharp. ▸ Adapted for tearing into flesh.
   • The trenchant talonid is a character of some miacids and distinguishes these teeth from the hyaenodontids and oxyaenids. 1971, Thomas H. V. Rich, Deltatheridia, Carnivora, and Condylarthra (Mammalia) of the Early Eocene, Paris Basin, France:
3. (figuratively) Keen; biting; vigorously articulate and effective; severe.
   • His trenchant criticisms of the Church's repression […] include a discussion of the considerable 1938 success of the fledgling NODL in getting magazines removed from various points of sale. 2011, Jay A. Gertzman, Bookleggers and Smuthounds: The Trade in Erotica, 1920-1940:
   • trenchant wit
   • His eyes, of the usual blue, were perhaps remarkably cold, and he certainly could make his glance fall on one as trenchant and heavy as an axe. 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, pages 210–211:

Forms

Deriveds

trenchantness · trenchantly · intrenchant

Translations (33)

bg рязко очертан (sharp) · sv bitande (kritik) (biting, severe) · pt afiado (sharp) · pl stanowczy (biting, severe) · fi terävä (sharp) · pt incisivo (biting, severe) · de treffsicher (biting, severe) · fi pureva (sharp) · bg рязък (biting, severe) · bg язвителен (biting, severe) · pl ostry (sharp) · he שנון (biting, severe) · de scharf (biting, severe) · pl ostry (biting, severe) · ru о́стрый (sharp) · de schneidend (sharp) · fi pureva (biting, severe) · de pointiert (biting, severe) · de prägnant (biting, severe) · io tranchiva (sharp) · pt cortante (sharp) · fr tranchant (sharp) · pt mordaz (biting, severe) · sv kraftfull (biting, severe) · ru ко́лкий (biting, severe) · he חריף (biting, severe) · de beißend (biting, severe) · sv skarp (sharp) · de stechend (biting, severe) · fi terävä (biting, severe) · pl cięty (biting, severe) · pl kąśliwy (biting, severe) · io tranchema (sharp)