Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Forceful and clear; penetrating.
  • adjective Caustic; cutting.
  • adjective Distinct; clear-cut.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Cutting; sharp; keen.
  • Penetrating; energetic; downright.
  • Specifically, in zoology, sectorial, as a molar or premolar; sharp-edged: as, the trenchant canines of a saber-toothed tiger.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Fitted to trench or cut; gutting; sharp.
  • adjective Fig.: Keen; biting; severe.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective obsolete Fitted to trench or cut; gutting; sharp.
  • adjective figuratively Keen; biting; vigorously effective and articulate; severe; as, trenchant wit.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective clearly or sharply defined to the mind
  • adjective characterized by or full of force and vigor
  • adjective having keenness and forcefulness and penetration in thought, expression, or intellect

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French, cutting, from present participle of trenchier, to cut; see trench.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French, from the present participle of trenchier, "to cut."

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Examples

  • Throughout the book, Seife's practiced journalist's eye results in trenchant nonmathematical observations.

    Charles Seife's 'Proofiness,' reviewed by John Allen Paulos John Allen Paulos 2010

  • Throughout the book, Seife's practiced journalist's eye results in trenchant nonmathematical observations.

    Charles Seife's "Proofiness," reviewed by John Allen Paulos John Allen Paulos 2010

  • "Did you never see anyone wet?" she asked, in trenchant tones.

    Mates at Billabong 1911

  • General Schenck did not appear to differ greatly from Davis, but what he said was in short, trenchant sentences, interjected from time to time.

    Military Reminiscences of the Civil War, Volume 2 November 1863-June 1865 Jacob Dolson Cox 1864

  • Bolton's assessment of Persian duplicity and his skepticism about the NIE recalls another trenchant comment by Rumsfeld on the nature of reports, that "Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns ... but there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don't know we don't know."

    Philip Giraldi: Neocons Strike Back on Iran 2008

  • And there is Barbour Bruce who might have been a writer, but is only known as a trenchant wit - "Who," she asked at a party, "was that nice, well-dressed, refined, common woman who has just had her cup of tea and gone away?"

    My beloved South, Mrs. T. P. O 1914

  • In the summer of 1842 sundry coarse assaults upon Shields, attributed in great part, or wholly, to the so-called trenchant and witty pen of Miss Todd, appeared in the Springfield

    Abraham Lincoln Morse, John T 1899

  • Meanwhile, Spencer, Emily and Aria are standing around a red trenchant, which is what Ali's claim ticket was for.

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Jaimie Etkin 2012

  • Doyle -- That's exactly the kind of trenchant analysis that's going to get you a column in the New York Times.

    How the Edwards campaign blundered into hiring those bloggers. Ann Althouse 2007

  • MALCOLM Turnbull has been forced to reassure "trenchant" coalition critics of the Government's emissions trading scheme he will not act unilaterally over the government's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.

    The Australian | News | 2009

Comments

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  • A trenchant statement

    May 29, 2008

  • What is?

    May 29, 2008

  • means cutting - able to scythe through

    June 23, 2008

  • trENCHANT. The trenchant is hardly enchanting.

    Trench ants can be trenchant beasties should they get in your pants.

    June 28, 2008

  • intrenchant

    July 10, 2012