a. Also 6 tranchaunt. [= F. tranchant cutting: see TRENCHANT.] Early form of TRENCHANT; also from 18th c. a loan-word from French; esp. in fig. sense: = TRENCHANT 2; also of colors, glaring, crude.
a. 1529. Skelton, Agst. Garnesche, III. 138. Your sworde ye swere, I wene, So tranchaunt and so kene.
1776. H. Walpole, Lett. to W. Mason, 18 Feb. Modest as he is tranchant and sly as Montesquieu without being so recherché.
1812. Edin. Rev., Feb., 475. The Notes are written in a flippant, lively, tranchant and assuming style.
1832. L. Hunt, Poems, Pref. 22. Dryden had a tranchant sword, which demanded stoutness in the sheath.
1841. Thackeray, 2nd Funeral Napoleon, iii. The raw tranchant colours of the new banners.
