retrenchingn.
/rᵻˈtrɛn(t)ʃɪŋ/, U.S. /rəˈtrɛn(t)ʃɪŋ/, /riˈtrɛn(t)ʃɪŋ/ The action of retrench v.1; an instance of this.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > memory > effacement, obliteration > [noun] > of writing, text, etc.
cancellingc1440
cancellation1535
deleting1544
deletion1590
expunction1606
retrenching1647
retrenchment1668
erasement1721
expunging1721
erasure1755
excision1858
redaction1962
1647 T. Fuller Good Thoughts in Worse Times 113 This would conduce to the advanceing of vertue and the retrenching of notorious licentiousnesse.
1681 J. Owen Humble Testimony 89 They cannot go about it, without great Retrenchings of that which they have esteemed their Liberty.
1741 S. A. Laval Compend. Hist. Reformation IV. vii. 474 Those Articles..such as the Invocation of Saints, the worship of Images,..the Retrenching of the Cup in the Holy Supper.
a1780 J. Harris Philol. Inq. (1781) i. v. 30 All antient books..were liable..to be corrupted in three different ways, that is to say, by Retrenchings, by Additions, and by Alterations.
1820 Examiner 25 Feb. 120/1 In the charge for the Consuls there is also ample room for retrenching.
1840 R. H. Dana Two Years before Mast 468 Sometimes a retrenching, not of the necessaries, but of some of the little niceties of their meals.
1848 C. Brontë Let. 1 May in C. K. Shorter C. Brontë & her Circle (1896) xvi. 435 I am glad you sent me your letter just as you had written it—without revisal, without retrenching or softening touch.
1920 N. Bartley Gorgeous Girl xviii. 263 The retrenching is to be the elimination of the fifteen-dollar-a-week professional reader.
1987 Personnel Psychol. 40 193 Resizing..refers to all management activities creating personnel changes associated with organization growth or retrenching.
2004 Tri-valley Herald (Pleasanton, Calif.) (Nexis) 25 July It should seriously consider retrenching and focusing on what it does best.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2010; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
retrenchingadj.
/rᵻˈtrɛn(t)ʃɪŋ/, U.S. /rəˈtrɛn(t)ʃɪŋ/, /riˈtrɛn(t)ʃɪŋ/ That retrenches (in various senses of retrench v.1); esp. that cuts expenditure; that economizes.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > management of money > expenditure > moderation or reduction in expenditure > [adjective] > reducing expenditure
retrenching1779
1779 F. Hervey et al. Naval Hist. Great Brit. V. vii. v. 393 An enterprizing statesman with the talents requisite for a retrenching financier.
1831 Countess Granville Lett. (1894) II. 81 A retrenching and vexatious public.
1866 Morning Star 26 July When the history of retrenching Administrations in this country comes to be written.
1919 National Budget Syst. (66th U.S. Congr. 1st Sess.) Supp. 20 The House of Representatives..has always been the retrenching arm of the Government.
1978 H. G. Huettich Theater in Planned Society x. 134 The Eleventh Plenary Meeting..resulted in a retrenching action by the party against such..‘bourgeois’ tendencies.
2008 Independent (Nexis) 5 June 32 What a retrenching and inflationary world will do for currencies and interest rates here.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2010; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1647adj.1779