Word.ws English Dictionary

retrenchments

retrenchments is the plural of retrenchment.

Meaning of retrenchment

Noun (1)

retrenchment (countable and uncountable, plural retrenchments)

  1. A curtailment or reduction.
    • It agrees that redundant services should not be continued but is not unmindful of the fact that too much retrenchment of rail services now may ultimately prove detrimental to the economy of the country.1955 June, “Notes and News: Redundant Branches and Stations”, in Railway Magazine, page 434
    1. (specifically) An act of reducing expenses; economizing.
      • Must my anxious management, my prudent retrenchments, dear Margaretta's savings, all go!1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXII, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 289
    2. (specifically) An act of terminating the employment of a worker or making an employee redundant, often to reduce expenses; a layoff.
  2. (broadly) Withdrawal.
    • Even then—10 long years ago—our disillusionment over past failures, our revulsion against moralistic posturing, our retrenchment from prescribing what was best for other people, our withdrawal symptoms from the exhilarations of overcommitment—all these argued for the perspective of diversity; for...1973, Thomas L. Hughes, “Democracy, Diversity, and the Flight from Foreign Policy”, in Foreign Policy, number 10, →JSTOR, pages 144–5

Noun (2)

retrenchment (plural retrenchments)

  1. (dated) A defensive work constructed within a fortification to make it more defensible by allowing defenders to retreat into and fight from it even after the enemy has taken the outer work.
    • The Half-Moon is a Work always raiſed before the Baſtion's Point, being ſo named from the Lowneſs of its Gorges Cavity, &c. and is to ſecure the Two Faces of the Baſtion; but when the Faces have but a weak Defence from the Ravelin, theſe Works are ſoon made uſeleſs or ruined, and give the Beſieged...1712, H[enry] Curzon, “Of Fortification”, in The Universal Library: Or, Compleat Summary of Science. […] , volume II, London: […] George Sawbridge, […], →OCLC, page 243

Noun (3)

retrenchment (countable and uncountable, plural retrenchments)

  1. (especially) The adoption of a defensive and hostile posture; refusal to compromise, radicalization.
    • Confronted by their practices again and again, these individuals and organizations in the gay community have made token gestures to appease the demands of people of color, while in the long run these confrontations have resulted in retrenchment of attitudes and stereotypes by gay whites.1976 December 4, John Kyper, quoting Ken Dudley, “Gays Discuss Their Own (And Others') Racism”, in Gay Community News, volume 4, number 23, page 3

Questions about retrenchments

What is retrenchments the plural of?
Retrenchments is the plural of retrenchment.

Words near retrenchments in the dictionary

  1. retrenchers
  2. retrenches
  3. retrenching
  4. retrenchings
  5. retrenchment
  6. retrenchments
  7. retrg.
  8. retriable
  9. retriage
  10. retriaged
  11. retriages

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: retrenchments (page history and authors); retrenchment (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “retrenchments.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/retrenchments. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.