[f. as prec. + MAN sb.1]
1. A cook or caterer. Obs. rare.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, I. iv. (1912), 29. He had alreadie bene more fed to his liking, then hee could bee by the skilfullest trencher-men of Media.
2. A feeder; an eater; usually qualified, as good, stout, valiant, etc., one who plays a good knife and fork; one who has a hearty appetite.
1590. Greene, Never too Late, Wks. (Grosart), VIII. 199. Mullidor tried himselfe so tall a trencher man, that his mother perceiued by his drift he would not die for loue.
1596. Shaks., Much Ado, I. i. 51. He’s a very valiant Trencher-man, hee hath an excellent stomacke.
1663. Davenant, Siege, II. i. You Are a rare Trencher-man.
1694. Motteux, Rabelais, V. Prol. Dry and hungry Souls. Pot and Trenchermen.
1805. Sporting Mag., XXVI. 52. One or two distinguished trencher-men.
1880. R. S. Watson, Vis. Wazan, xii. 226. As much as would serve a valiant trencher-man in England for half a week.
3. One who frequents a patron’s table; a parasite, dependent, hanger-on.
1599. Nashe, Lenton Stuffe, Ep. Ded. A dismall world for trenchermen, when theyr maisters bond shal not be so good as theirs.
1643. Wither, Campo Musæ, 40. By these virtues, from a trencher-man A Princes Minion, riseth, now and than.
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, xx. Everybody knew old Pen, regular old trencher-man at Gaunt House, notorious old bore, regular old fogey.
So Trencher-woman.
1607. Dekker & Webster, Northw. Hoe, V. i. Ile to my trencher-woman, let me alone for dealing with her.
1848. [R. C. Kelsey], Niagara, etc., 279. Kate … also happened, without being much of a genius, to have a thorough good stomach for a book, and, like a true trencher-woman, cut, carved, and came again until her very finger ends stood starched out with repletion.
1864. J. M. Mackie, From Cape Cod to Dixie, etc., xi. 134. A valiant trencher woman, it may be added, almost as valiant as my ogress herself, was this grand dowager; and repeatedly did she strike her fork into the platter of fried oysters set at the head of the table before the captain.
1865[?]. G. E. Sargent, Lilian, ii. 32. ‘You are a poor trencher-woman,’ said the farmer, when the old woman returned thanks for what she and the child had eaten; ‘but since you say you have had enough, it is not for me to contradict you.’
1872. J. F. Bowman, Abigail Ray’s Vision, in Overland Monthly, VIII. April, 363/2. Miss Ray, who was an excellent trencher-woman, and always seemed to enjoy these midnight repasts, had been talking in her most brilliant strain, without, however, allowing her conversation to prevent her from doing full justice to the rare-bit and the bottled ale.
1891. T. Hardy, Tess, xxxiv. To be sure, ’a was always a good trencher-woman, as her face showed.
1924. Guardian, 2 June, 6/5. Gobbling naturally suggests the famous dish of early green peas which William III. scooped into his mouth while his sister-in-law [Queen Victoria], a good trencher-woman, watched him agape.
fig. 1840. Central Register (Kosciusko, MS), 4 April, 1/3. Whiggery, it is well known, is a famous trencher-woman: she plays an excellent knife and fork, and does not wait for a corkscrew to get at the contents of a bottle of sparkling campaign [sic] or hock.
