Trenchant Meaning and Usage

Trenchant:

Adjective

- Forceful, effective, and vigorous: “a trenchant argument”
- Caustic; cutting: “trenchant criticism”
- Distinct; clear-cut.
- Keen or incisive: “a trenchant screenplay”
- So sharp as to cause mental pain



Derivatives:

trenchancy - noun
trenchantly - adverb


Let’s look at some examples:

1. My sister had a trenchant way of cutting our bread and butter for us that never varied.

2. She made a number of trenchant observations concerning life in Britain today.

3. The critics dismissed the play with a few trenchant remarks.

4. Not even in the Bowery, full as it was of candid friends, had he listened to such a trenchant summing-up of his mental and moral deficiencies.

5. The trenchant words hurt the man deeply.

6. Determine what specific goal you want to achieve. Then dedicate yourself to its attainment with unswerving singleness of purpose, the trenchant zeal of a crusader

7. Without a trenchant tool, they would have to break the branches rather than cut them.

8. Many are calling for trenchant measures to stem the tide of illegal migrant workers in the US.

9. The great detective solved his cases by means of trenchant observation and reasoning, and every once in a while by means of plain old luck.

10. Some have been subject to trenchant media criticisms far beyond what they ever should have had to bear.

11. Many of the most trenchant critics failed to engage with the pragmatic compromises involved in doing anything in such an environment.

12. As part of his work James produced a journal full of exquisite drawings and trenchant observations.


Origin:

The word "trenchant" comes from the Anglo-French verb "trencher," meaning "to cut," and may ultimately derive from the Vulgar Latin "trinicare," meaning "to cut in three."
Hence, a trenchant sword is one with a keen edge; a trenchant remark is one that cuts deep; and a trenchant observation is one that cuts to the heart of the matter. Relatives
of "trenchant" in English include the noun "trench" ("a long ditch cut into the ground") and the verb "retrench" ("to cut down or pare away" or "to cut down expenses").


Synonyms:

acerbic, acid, acidulous, acrid, acrimonious, acute, astringent, biting, bitter, caustic, clear, corrosive, crisp, critical, crushing, cutting, distinct, driving, dynamic, effective, effectual, emphatic, energetic, explicit, forceful, forcible, graphic, hurtful, impressive, incisive, intense, keen, mordacious, mordant, penetrating, perceptive, piquant, poignant, pointed, potent, powerful, probing, pungent, salient, salty, sarcastic, sardonic, scathing, sensitive, sententious, severe, sharp, significant, slashing, stinging, strong, tart, truculent, unequivocal, unsparing, vigorous, vitriolic, weighty.


Antonyms:

frivolous, gentle, impotent, kind, nice, weak


Some more examples:

1. It indulges in some fairly trenchant analysis on where the industry is heading.

2. The ' heritage movement ' has not escaped scrutiny, and museums have come in for particularly trenchant criticism.

3. His diverse experience, combined with his exuberant personality, erudition and often trenchant views make him a compelling and entertaining speaker.

4. Intellectually trenchant and emotionally brutal, the film is also a feast of outstanding acting.

5. Professor Davis is equally trenchant about her experiences of the political process in the United States.

6. Her insistence that women's rights should be upheld universally, notwithstanding concerns about cultural diversity, led some to criticise her for being too narrowly entrenched within western liberalism, while others celebrated her trenchant defence of egalitarianism.

7. His revolutionary music, abrasive personality and trenchant writings about art and life divided the city into warring factions.

8. The trenchant divisions between right and wrong, honest and dishonest, respectable and the reverse, had left so little scope for the unforseen.

9. The vase's detail was so trenchant that it was the first thing i saw when i walked in the door.

10. His eyes, of the usual blue, were perhaps remarkably cold, and he certainly could make his glance fall on one as trenchant and heavy as an axe.