entrenchmentn.
/ᵻnˈtrɛn(t)ʃm(ə)nt/, /ɛnˈtrɛn(t)ʃm(ə)nt/, U.S. /ᵻnˈtrɛn(t)ʃmənt/, /ɛnˈtrɛn(t)ʃmənt/ 1.
a. Military. A trench or line of trenches serving as a fortification; a post fortified by trenches. More generally: any fortification or line of defence.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > defence > defensive work(s) > earthwork or rampart > [noun] > trench > an entrenchment
entrenchment1590
trenchment1604
lopeskonce1624
morcha1885
1590 E. Spenser Faerie Queene ii. xi. sig. Y8 Seuen of the same against the Castle gate, In strong entrenchments he did closely place.
1592 Disc. that which is Past since Kings Departure 5 His maiestie..hauing kept the Enemy al that daye in an Alarme within their intrenchement, discouered the lodginges where his campe should be quartered the next daye.
1622 F. Markham Five Decades Epist. of Warre v. iv. 175 Intrenchments, fortifications, places of approach.
1649 O. Cromwell Let. 17 Sept. in Writings & Speeches (1939) (modernized text) II. 126 They got ground of the enemy, and by the goodness of God, forced him to quit his entrenchments.
1670 C. Cotton tr. G. Girard Hist. Life Duke of Espernon i. iv. 166 A great Ditch, which the torrent of Land floods had worn, and hollow'd into the form of a regular entrenchment.
1703 Clarendon's Hist. Rebellion II. vii. 357 He Besieged them in their own Intrenchment.
1774 T. Pennant Tour Scotl. 1772 85 A strong entrenchment..on a steep and lofty clay cliff.
1796 E. Burke Corr. IV. 353 Had your miserable slanderers been there, to make an intrenchment of their worthless carcasses.
1839 T. Keightley Hist. Eng. (new ed.) I. 352 Bastilles, or huts defended by intrenchments were constructed round the city.
1885 Cent. Mag. May 147/2 Smith's division of Franklin's were now ordered to abandon their intrenchments.
1906 Spectator 2 June 872/1 The storm of fire which burst from behind the cotton-bales that served Jackson for an entrenchment.
1938 Jrnl. Amer. Mil. Hist. Found. 2 14 A second line..had been thrown up.., commanding both the Confederate advance intrenchments and the enemy's works at a distance.
1991 Time 11 Feb. 26/2 [They] can distinguish live and dead aircraft, Scud missile launchers, vehicles and entrenchments—but not soldiers.
2001 S. Hong Wireless 217 During the Boer war, (1899–1902), the British Army heavily bombarded a Boer entrenchment.
b. figurative and in figurative contexts. Something likened to an entrenchment in providing strength, security, or protection; a defence. Now rare.
ΚΠ
1610 R. Goring tr. P. Du Moulin Theophilus ii. 80 The loue of our selues..is as it were Sathans last intrenchment, from whence he is vneasily driuen away.
1631 B. Jonson Inigo Jones 23 in Wks. II When thou..canst of truth ye least intrenchmt pitch.
1706 Case of Deism 89 You have been forc'd to quit your Posts one by one, and still you would cast your self behind some new Entrenchment.
1741 C. Middleton Hist. Life Cicero I. ii. 147 Had forced the entrenchments of the Nobility.
1865 C. Dickens Our Mutual Friend II. iii. iv. 27 This sally on a weak point of Mrs. Wilfer's entrenchments.
1876 E. Mellor Priesthood viii. 385 The sacerdotalists have here an intrenchment from which they can never be dislodged.
1911 Manch. Q. Apr. 135 Books are a necessity of life, he likes to be walled-in with them, to have them as an entrenchment about him; they are a defence against many of the evils by which he is assailed.
1934 M. Ward Wilfrid Wards & Transition I. Introd. p. vi Invested by the hosts of Protestantism and Secularism, she [sc. the Church] had drawn within her entrenchments, refused intellectual parley with a hostile world.
2.
a. Military. The action or an act of surrounding or fortifying an army, town, etc., with trenches; the fact of being entrenched.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > defence > defensive work(s) > earthwork or rampart > [noun] > trench > action of trenching
entrenching1549
entrenchment1593
trenching1899
1593 M. Sutcliffe Pract., Proc., & Lawes of Armes ix. 137 Pyrrhus seeing the default therein, beganne first to fortifie his campe by entrenchment.
1640 J. Cruso tr. Henri Duc de Rohan Compl. Captain i. 6 For the Romanes have never conquered other nations by their great number,..but by their knowledge in warre,..and entrenchment of their camp.
1684 Breviate Weavers Business 54 Wortz did all he could to hasten his Entrenchments, and order'd the Cavalry to advance to the side of the River.
1707 tr. F. de la Vallière in Art of War 219 The manner of Incamping the Troops shall be according to the Method of the Intrenchment.
1854 F. A. Griffiths Artillerist's Man. (ed. 6) ix. 222 Lines are formed for the entrenchment of armies, and are composed of a succession of redans, &c., joined by curtains.
1894 Bristol Mercury 18 Sept. 6/2 The great saving of time in the erection of shields when compared with the method of entrenchment and embankment is enormous.
1939 Jrnl. Amer. Mil. Inst. 3 229 Davis' Third Division was at Sugar Creek, under orders to begin the entrenchment of the position.
2015 J. R. Arnold Health under Fire iv. 59 By 1864, Civil War armies had perfected the art of entrenchment.
b. figurative. The action of embedding or establishing something firmly, esp. so that change is difficult or impossible; the fact of being so embedded or established.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > easiness > aid, help, or assistance > strengthening or confirmation of immaterial things > [noun]
strenghinga1400
strengthc1400
affirmance1442
roboration1473
confirmation1520
corroboration1529
fortification1530
strengthening1535
hardening1544
establishment1561
re-enforcement1577
comforting1605
reinforcement1605
consolidation1611
establishing1846
undergirding1868
entrenchment1877
entrenching1950
1877 Troy (Missouri) Herald 10 Jan. In France the year has seen the further entrenchment of the republic in the confidence of the nation.
1902 Manch. Guardian 9 Apr. 10/ It would be impossible to exaggerate the evil threatened to their church work if they allowed any further entrenchment of the spirit of sectarianism.
1973 Black Panther 21 July 3/2 The result was the defeat of western Populism and the further entrenchment of racism.
2012 New Yorker 30 Apr. 30/1 Sherif also believes that the Salafis have failed to take on a larger problem, the entrenchment of what he called ‘the deep state’.
c. The action of setting conditions so that a clause, provision, or other piece of legislation is difficult to amend or repeal; the fact of being entrenched in this way; a clause, provision, etc., which has been entrenched in this way. Cf. entrench v. 2c.
ΘΚΠ
society > law > legislation > [noun] > entrenchment of constitutional safeguards
entrenchment1961
1909 Times of India 29 Apr. 10/2 He regarded the entrenchment of the native franchise clause as a fair and reasonable conclusion.
1961 Ann. Reg. 1960 92 The only entrenchment in the Constitution was that guaranteeing the equal status of the two official languages, English and Afrikaans.
2008 Classical Q. 58 505 There are small fragments of two decrees for unknown allied cities, one of them apparently containing an entrenchment clause to protect it against annulment.
2018 G. Carney in C. Saunders & A. Stone Oxf. Handbk. Austral. Constit. xii. 298 The only provisions capable of effective entrenchment must relate to the institution of State Parliament itself.
3. The action or an act of encroaching upon (also on) something; encroachment; intrusion. Cf. entrench v. 4.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > dueness or propriety > moral impropriety > [noun] > infringement of rights, etc.
intrusion1433
intruseryc1470
attainmentc1503
encroachment1523
encroaching1539
trenching1543
infringinga1575
usurpationa1626
entrenching1629
entrenchment1635
invasion1650
impingement1671
infringement1673
trespass1769
usurpature1845
1635 P. Harris Exile Exiled i. 9 I would endeavour to perswade those most eminent L. Cardinalls..to direct a deprecatory Epistle unto him, by which he might be induced to passe over that injurious entrenchment upon his Crowne & Dignity.
a1680 S. Charnock Several Disc. Existence of God (1682) 404 All the Speeches of Men..are Intrenchments upon Gods wise disposal of affairs.
1698 J. Norris Pract. Disc. Divine Subj. IV. 182 An intrenchment upon Publick Decency.
1730 A. Taylor Pract. Treat. of Saving Faith i. iv. 89 It is not an intrenchment on our liberty, to have Christ to choose for us.
?1798 R. Fry No Shame 20 Yet every intrenchment upon the unity and absolute independence of God, is an error of magnitude.
1836 New-Hampsh. Statesman & State Jrnl. 30 Apr. It is such an entrenchment upon that retiring modesty, which is one of the brightest ornaments of the female sex.
1878 Sporting Gaz. 22 June 585/2 There is some jealousy in America of any entrenchment upon the definition of an amateur.
1949 H. L. Munson European Beliefs iv. 27 In many quarters there is a sort of undefined feeling of American entrenchment upon Europe.
1995 Irish Times 14 Mar. 13/1 Any entrenchment on the citizen's freedoms is to be regretted.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2018; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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