Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A hearty eater.
  • noun Archaic One who frequently eats meals at another's table; a hanger-on.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A person who eats a substantial amount; a feeder, one with a healthy appetite.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From trencher + man.

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Examples

  • A hearty trencherman and a bit of a wag, uncle George is jovial in every dimension.

    6 A Colombian Family « Unknowing 2010

  • The diplomatic architect of the new Italian state, Count Cavour, was a redoubtable trencherman who would later have several dishes named in his honor.

    Delizia! John Dickie 2008

  • Eddie "Bozo" Miller was once listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as the "world's greatest trencherman."

    'World's Greatest Trencherman' Ate His Way 2008

  • They stared on the next occasion of meeting, when Bloundell spoke in contemptuous terms of old Pen; said everybody knew old Pen, regular old trencherman at Gaunt

    The History of Pendennis 2006

  • During the holidays, we take on the characteristics of a trencherman!

    Archive 2006-12-01 2006

  • ‘I am but a bad trencherman myself,’ said Trevelyan,

    He Knew He Was Right 2004

  • Jack of the Smithies was a trencherman of the very first order, and being well wedded (with a promise already of young soldiers to come), it behooved him to fill all his holes away from home, and spare his own cupboard for the sake of Mistress Smithies.

    Mary Anerley Richard Doddridge 2004

  • And I said: Hagias, it is true, hath reason to be troubled at this unusual disappointment, because having so great a belly (for he was an excellent trencherman) he had no larger mess than others; for in

    Essays and Miscellanies 2004

  • And I said: Hagias, it is true, hath reason to be troubled at this unusual disappointment, because having so great a belly (for he was an excellent trencherman) he had no larger mess than others; for in

    Symposiacs 2004

  • You had musty victual, and he hath holp to eat it: he is a very valiant trencherman; he hath an excellent stomach.

    Much Ado About Nothing 2004

Comments

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  • “He is routinely cited as the foremost eater of the Gilded Age, a serial multicourse gorger (the word ‘trencherman’ always seems to come up) whose excesses were endearing rather than vulgar — or, at the very least, endearingly vulgar.�?

    The New York Times, Whether True or False, a Real Stretch, by David Kamp, December 30, 2008

    January 1, 2009

  • "Bread rolls were set at each place--new bread for the lord, one-day-old bread for the guests and three-day-old bread for the household--so that one's social position continued to be defined by the age and quantity of bread as much as for its colour. Slices of four-day-old bread trimmed into orderly squares by the pantler and known as trenchers, from the French 'trencher', to slice, were stacked along the tables for everyone's use; from these come our use of the word trencherman to denote a hearty eater."

    --Kate Colquhoun, Taste: The Story of Britain Through Its Cooking (NY: Bloomsbury, 2007), 74

    January 8, 2017