0 past simple and past participle of retrench
1 If governments, companies, etc. retrench, they start spending less money, or reducing costs:
North Carolina is not retrenching on its spending on education.
The president had planned to take more lavish offices but was forced to retrench amid criticism from Congress and the public.
In 2011 some people were retrenched.
A New South Wales cleaning contractor retrenched an employee using a standard retrenchment letter.
Other, less fortunate members of the national elite, found themselves retrenched and sent home to the village.
These were the office cleaners and kitchen ladies who had to be retrenched.
More public service staff were retrenched and studies to draft rationalisation plans were carried out.
The biggest losers comprised the large number of workers, who were retrenched in the early stages of the divestiture.
