Trench foot ww1. a long, narrow excavation in the ground dug by soldiers as a defense against enemy fire or attack. 6. How to use trench in a sentence. A trench can collapse or cave-in at any moment. to set or place in a trench. The Oxford Learner’s Thesaurus explains the difference between groups of similar words. Without a protective system in place, a trench collapse can crush and suffocate workers. Working in an unprotected trench is dangerous. People often refer to the battle grounds of the First World War in Northern France and Belgium as the trenches. a long, deep hole dug in the ground, for example for carrying away water. wd5ejvzdcokm41rgh19uqfw5dhpjjoahgxaamovl7yiorrg71r