Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Trencher
1.
One who trenches; esp., one who cuts or digs ditches.
2.
A large wooden plate or platter, as for table use.
3.
The table; hence, the pleasures of the table; food.
It could be no ordinary declension of nature that could bring some men, after an ingenuous education, to place their “summum bonum” upon their
trenchers
. South.
Trencher cap
, the cap worn by studens at Oxford and Cambridge Universities, having a stiff, flat, square appendage at top. A similar cap used in the United States is called
– Oxford cap
, mortar board
, etc. Trencher fly
, a person who haunts the tables of others; a parasite.
[R.]
L’Estrange.
– Trencher friend
, one who frequents the tables of others; a sponger.
– Trencher mate
, a table companion; a parasite; a trencher fly.
Hooker.
Webster 1828 Edition
Trencher
TRENCH'ER
,Noun.
1.
The table.2.
Food; pleasures of the table. It would be no ordinary declension that would bring some men to place their summum bonum upon their trenchers.