Definition of "trencher" [trench•er]

• A wooden board or platter on which food is carved or served. (noun)
• Archaic The pleasure of the table; food. (noun)
• One that digs trenches. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "So people still ate off their wooden trenchers, and as a wooden trencher is about the best substance I know for holding germs and ferments, people died."
• "For plates they used what was called a trencher made of wood or pewter."
• "-- Ed. 18 In this country the introduction of earthenware plates has driven the less cleanly wooden plate, called a trencher, entirely out of use."