Lexic.us

Definition of Trenchant

1. Adjective. Having keenness and forcefulness and penetration in thought, expression, or intellect. "Trenchant criticism"

2. Adjective. Characterized by or full of force and vigor. "A trenchant argument"

3. Adjective. Clearly or sharply defined to the mind. "Trenchant distinctions between right and wrong"

Definition of Trenchant

1. a. Fitted to trench or cut; gutting; sharp.

Definition of Trenchant

1. Adjective. (obsolete) Fitted to trench or cut; gutting; sharp. ¹

2. Adjective. (figuratively) Keen; biting; vigorously effective and articulate; severe; as, trenchant wit. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Trenchant

1. [adj]

Lexicographical Neighbors of Trenchant

trench foot trench hand trench knife trench lung trench mentalities trench mentality trench mortar trench mouth trench nephritis trench plate

trench warfare trenchancies trenchancy trenchand trenchant (current term) trenchantly trenchantness trenchcoat trenchcoated trenchcoats

trenched trencher trencherful trencherfuls trencherlike trencherman trenchermanship trenchermen trenchers

Literary usage of Trenchant

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. The Animal Kingdom Arranged in Conformity with Its Organization by Georges Cuvier, Edward Griffith, Charles Hamilton Smith, Edward Pidgeon, John Edward Gray, George Robert Gray (1830)
"The cubitus is compressed, and trenchant on its radial edge. Jts olecranon projects but little. The radius is slender; the femur much resembles that of the ..."

2. Appraisements and Asperities as to Some Contemporary Writers by Felix Emmanuel Schelling (1922)
""Lil- uli" is really a trenchant satire; its subject the disillusion which has fallen on our sometime smug world. The author takes no sides, ..."

3. Appraisements and Asperities as to Some Contemporary Writers by Felix Emmanuel Schelling (1922)
""Lil- uli" is really a trenchant satire; its subject the disillusion which has fallen on our sometime smug world. The author takes no sides, ..."

4. Dictionary of Obsolete and Provincial English: Containing Words from the by Thomas Wright (1904)
"(A.-N.) The officer who cut bread at the royal table. TRENCH, (1) v. (A.-N.) To cut, or carve. trenchant, cutting; sharp. (2) ». A horse's bit. TRENCHER, ». ..."

5. Life and Public Services of Edwin M. Stanton by George Congdon Gorham (1899)
"Mr. Stanton's trenchant Criticisms of the Administration in Private Letters. THE attack on Sumter was the signal of two mighty uprisings, which stirred to ..."

6. Teuffels̓ History of Roman Literature by Wilhelm Sigismund Teuffel (1891)
"The style is unequal: often heavy, cramped and stiff, but as often vivid, striking and trenchant, sometimes of glowing vehemence, sometimes of a ruggedness ..."

7. Schools and Universities on the Continent by Matthew Arnold (1868)
"... SCHOOLS — THE SECULAR CLERGY AND THEIR SEMINARIES — trenchant REFORMS IN THE SCHOOLS OF THE RELIGIOUS. seems no doubt that the free universities are the ..."

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