RETRENCH

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does retrench mean? 

• RETRENCH (verb)
  The verb RETRENCH has 2 senses:

1. tighten one's belt; use resources carefully

2. make a reduction, as in one's workforce

  Familiarity information: RETRENCH used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RETRENCH (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they retrench    ... he / she / it retrenches   
Past simple: retrenched   
Past participle: retrenched   
-ing form: retrenching   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Tighten one's belt; use resources carefully

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "retrench" is one way to...):

conserve; economise; economize; husband (use cautiously and frugally)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

retrenchment (the reduction of expenditures in order to become financially stable)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Make a reduction, as in one's workforce

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

The company had to retrench

Hypernyms (to "retrench" is one way to...):

bring down; cut; cut back; cut down; reduce; trim; trim back; trim down (cut down on; make a reduction in)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

Derivation:

retrenchment (the reduction of expenditures in order to become financially stable)

 Context examples 

They must retrench; that did not admit of a doubt.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

I know I cannot live as I have done, but I must retrench where I can, and learn to be a better manager.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

YOUR sense of honour and honesty would have led you, I know, when aware of your situation, to attempt all the economy that would appear to you possible: and, perhaps, as long as your frugality retrenched only on your own comfort, you might have been suffered to practice it, but beyond that—and how little could the utmost of your single management do to stop the ruin which had begun before your marriage?

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Does it occur to you that there is any one article in which we can retrench?

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

He had given her some hints of it the last spring in town; he had gone so far even as to say, Can we retrench?

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

The hint was immediately taken up by Mr Shepherd, whose interest was involved in the reality of Sir Walter's retrenching, and who was perfectly persuaded that nothing would be done without a change of abode.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)