retrench

英 [r?'tren(t)?] 美[ri'tr?nt?]

GRE暢通詞匯

第三人稱單數(shù):?retrenches;過去式:?retrenched;過去分詞:?retrenched;現(xiàn)在分詞:?retrenching;名詞:?retrenchment;

retrench 節(jié)約，縮減

re-,向后，往回，-trench,砍，劈，詞源同 truncate,trunk.引申詞義節(jié)約，縮減。 retrial 復(fù)審，再審

retrench: retrench: [16] Retrench originally meant literally ‘dig a new trench as a second line of defence’. It was borrowed from early modern French retrencher, a descendant of Old French retrenchier. This was a compound verb formed from the prefix re- ‘a(chǎn)gain’ and trenchier ‘cut off’ (source of English trench, trenchant, etc). The standard present-day sense of retrench, ‘cut back, economize’, first recorded in the 17th century, is a return to the underlying meaning of French retrencher.
=> trench, trenchant
retrench (v.1): 1590s, "dig a new trench as a second line of defense," 1590s, probably a back-formation from retrenchment in the military sense. Related: Retrenched; retrenching.
retrench (v.2): "cut off, cut down, pare away" (expenses, etc.), 1620s, from obsolete French retrencher "to cut off, lessen, shorten" (Modern French retrancher, Old French retrenchier), from re- "back" (see re-) + Old French trenchier "to cut" (see trench). Related: Retrenched; retrenching.

1. Shortly afterwards, cuts in defence spending forced the aerospace industry to retrench.: 不久之后，國防開支的削減迫使航空航天業(yè)緊縮開支。

3. The mess of Wall Street means the families have to retrench.: 華爾街的動蕩對很多家庭來說意味著新一輪的勒緊腰帶過日子.

4. As business is bad these days, we have to retrench.: 由于最近生意不景氣, 我們不得不緊縮開支.

5. Why don't you retrench then - scrape up, hoard , economise?: 那么你為什么不節(jié)約一下 —— 積累一點(diǎn), 儲蓄一點(diǎn), 省吃儉用一些呢 ?