What's the difference between trench and wrench?

Trench


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To cut; to form or shape by cutting; to make by incision, hewing, or the like.
  • (v. t.) To fortify by cutting a ditch, and raising a rampart or breastwork with the earth thrown out of the ditch; to intrench.
  • (v. t.) To cut furrows or ditches in; as, to trench land for the purpose of draining it.
  • (v. t.) To dig or cultivate very deeply, usually by digging parallel contiguous trenches in succession, filling each from the next; as, to trench a garden for certain crops.
  • (v. i.) To encroach; to intrench.
  • (v. i.) To have direction; to aim or tend.
  • (v. t.) A long, narrow cut in the earth; a ditch; as, a trench for draining land.
  • (v. t.) An alley; a narrow path or walk cut through woods, shrubbery, or the like.
  • (v. t.) An excavation made during a siege, for the purpose of covering the troops as they advance toward the besieged place. The term includes the parallels and the approaches.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Its boot always held a bivouac bag, a trenching tool of some sort and a towel and trunks, in case he passed somewhere interesting to sleep, dig, or swim.
  • (2) The RSC’s Erica Whyman stages a story inspired by a local man, the Royal Warwickshire Regiment’s Captain Bruce Bairnsfather, who was known as the cartoonist of the trenches and survived the war to work at the original Shakespeare Memorial theatre.
  • (3) Stephen Fisher, one of the archaeologists recording the site, says digging the trenches would also have been training for the men, who would soon have to do it for real, and the little slit trenches scattered across the site, just big enough for one man to cower in, might represent their first efforts.
  • (4) Upon segregation of the conidium from the phialide cell by conidial wall formation, 'trench-like' invaginations gradually appeared in the plasma membrane and a disorganized rodlet pattern was formed on the outer surface of the maturing conidial wall.
  • (5) The field was taped off while a mechanical digger clawed at the ground, making parallel trenches in the sandy earth.
  • (6) Scores of archaeologists working in a waterlogged trench through the wettest summer and coldest winter in living memory have recovered more than 10,000 objects from Roman London , including writing tablets, amber, a well with ritual deposits of pewter, coins and cow skulls, thousands of pieces of pottery, a unique piece of padded and stitched leather – and the largest collection of lucky charms in the shape of phalluses ever found on a single site.
  • (7) He sees HS2 as a "huge trench across the country where we can learn an awful lot about new sites.
  • (8) But his attitude gradually hardened, particularly after he reached the trenches.
  • (9) "It looks solid," said Jean Pascal Zanders, a Belgian expert who runs a blog on chemical weapons called The Trench .
  • (10) What they learn can be summed up in one word: trenches.
  • (11) The archaeologists had to wear slippers to preserve the site which, at the bottom of a two-metre trench, picked up much damp.
  • (12) A variety of cold exposure injuries were discussed, including frostnip, chilblains, trench foot, frostbite, and hypothermia.
  • (13) Alan Trench, an academic specialising in devolution and adviser to expert government commissions, said: "It's clear that Labour voters generally have concerns about how things are at the moment.
  • (14) But if trapped deep inside wreckage or an underwater trench, the effectiveness can be hindered.
  • (15) French troops wearing an early form of gas mask in the trenches during the second Battle of Ypres in 1915.
  • (16) Keeping within the string lines of your footprint, dig a trench about 15cm deep and lay the foundation stones flat and level.
  • (17) But according to Wayne Cocroft, an English Heritage expert on wartime archaeology, although 20 other trench training sites have been recorded across Britain, many have been damaged by later development, and both the scale and the state of preservation of the Gosport complex is exceptional.
  • (18) Working in a location to the southeast of Kathmandu, Paul Tapponnier, an earth scientist at the Earth Observatory of Singapore , and his team dug trenches across the fault and used charcoal to date when it had moved.
  • (19) There are no trenches, barbed wire fences or tank traps.
  • (20) Accessory glandular tissues were atrophied and debris filled the trenches of the papillae.

Wrench


Definition:

  • (v. t.) Trick; deceit; fraud; stratagem.
  • (v. t.) A violent twist, or a pull with twisting.
  • (v. t.) A sprain; an injury by twisting, as in a joint.
  • (v. t.) Means; contrivance.
  • (v. t.) An instrument, often a simple bar or lever with jaws or an angular orifice either at the end or between the ends, for exerting a twisting strain, as in turning bolts, nuts, screw taps, etc.; a screw key. Many wrenches have adjustable jaws for grasping nuts, etc., of different sizes.
  • (v. t.) The system made up of a force and a couple of forces in a plane perpendicular to that force. Any number of forces acting at any points upon a rigid body may be compounded so as to be equivalent to a wrench.
  • (n.) To pull with a twist; to wrest, twist, or force by violence.
  • (n.) To strain; to sprain; hence, to distort; to pervert.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Bamu also beat him, taking a pair of pliers and wrenching his ear.
  • (2) She lives in Holland Park and welcomes visitors with a gusty wrench of the door and a jubilant "hello".
  • (3) Goldsmith, following in the footsteps of his father , who started the rabid anti-EU referendum campaign, is for a hard Brexit, wrenching us away as brutally and damagingly as possible.
  • (4) In one email, an aide suggests she should “toss a wrench at someone”.
  • (5) The fact that they cannot afford to do so can be gut-wrenching.
  • (6) So it will have been a wrench for Jez, and his embattled entourage, to have to “cave in”, as the Guardian’s report put it, and suspend the MP from the party after David Cameron (who really should leave the rough stuff to the rough end of the trade) had taunted him at PMQs for not acting sooner when the Guido Fawkes blog republished her ugly comments and the Mail on Sunday got out its trumpet.
  • (7) But if you read carefully, Roberts did throw a wrench into the NSA's main defense for what it does: self-policing.
  • (8) "The pictures that we are seeing in Gaza and in Israel are heart-wrenching."
  • (9) Everybody is happy.” Fortunately for Villa, the fact Hull lost 2-0 at Tottenham meant their safety was assured a few hours later – welcome news to the Villa manager Tim Sherwood after a gut-wrenching first half.
  • (10) We are continuing to see heart wrenching reports of sexual abuse and assault, self-harm and hopelessness of refugees detained on Nauru and Manus Island with over 2,000 people left to languish in detention,” Szoke said.
  • (11) Mr Vine said: "Some time ago I decided I would have to leave Newsnight if I went to Radio 2 and that's a wrench, but no journalist could turn down such a magnificent offer from what is the UK's most successful radio station.
  • (12) I recall the sense of dismay I felt that morning when watching the first plane hit and how that morphed, when the second plane came less than twenty minutes later, into a gut-wrenching realization that this was no accident.
  • (13) No parent, hearing the voices of those still seeking news of their children, could fail to imagine the frantic play of hope and despair, the terrible wrenching of attachment.
  • (14) I decided it would do to convey a mixture of can-you-believe-it crossness and wrenching disappointment, selected it, added zilch and pressed send.
  • (15) Wrenching forces exerted on the cervical spine are attenuated, and the face is protected from contact with hard or lacerating surfaces.
  • (16) This throws a monkey wrench into the licensing process.
  • (17) 'A tremendous wrench': Sir Ivan Rogers's resignation email in full Read more He wrote: “I hope you will continue to challenge ill-founded arguments and muddled thinking and that you will never be afraid to speak the truth to those in power.
  • (18) The two cases herein described manifest unusual and distinctive injuries resulting from multiple impacts by adjustable crescent wrenches.
  • (19) He could take the most pitiful souls – his CV was populated almost exclusively by snivelling wretches, insufferable prigs, braggarts and outright bullies – and imbue each of them with a wrenching humanity.
  • (20) Their 18-year relationship made a gut-wrenching but fascinating public story, which began with romantic passion, high hopes and an elopement to Spain.