[f. prec. sb.]
1. trans. To furnish with benches.
c. 1385. Chaucer, L. G. W., 98. I-benchede newe with turvis.
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., 130. This entry [of the pyramid] was … benched on each side.
1729. Savage, Wanderer, V. v. There, bench’d with turf, an oak our seat extends.
1847. Tennyson, Princess, ii. 348. Stately theatres Bench’d crescent-wise.
† 2. To bank up, bank back. Obs. rare.
1587. Fleming, Contn. Holinshed, III. 1547/1. Yf there were anie issue or draining of water vnder the wals … they benched it, digging a trench at the foot of that part of the wall, and filling the same with earth.
3. a. trans. To seat on a bench. b. refl. and intr. To seat oneself, or take a seat, upon a bench.
1605. Shaks., Lear, III. vi. 40. Thou his yoke-fellow of equity, Bench by his side. Ibid. (1611), Wint. T., I. ii. 314. His Cup-bearer, whom I from meaner forme Haue Bench’d, and rear’d to Worship.
1624. Heywood, Captives, IV. iii. in Bullen, O. Pl., IV. The fryar … Hath lyke a surly Justyce bensht himself.
1816. W. Taylor, in Month. Mag., XLI. 331. They … bench their weary joints.
4. intr. To bench in: to recede in terraced levels.
1737. L. Clarke, Hist. Bible, VII. (1740), 409. The whole ascent to it was, by the benching in, drawn in a sloping line from the bottom to the top. Ibid. Calling it a Pyramid, because of its … benching in at every Tower.
