having keenness and forcefulness and penetration in thought, expression, or intellect
<adj.all> searching insights trenchant criticism
characterized by or full of force and vigor
<adj.all> a hard-hitting expose a trenchant argument
clearly or sharply defined to the mind
<adj.all> clear-cut evidence of tampering Claudius was the first to invade Britain with distinct...intentions of conquest trenchant distinctions between right and wrong
Trenchant \Trench"ant\, a. [OF. trenchant, F. tranchant, p. pr. See {Trench}, v. t.] 1. Fitted to trench or cut; gutting; sharp. `` Trenchant was the blade.'' --Chaucer.
2. Fig.: Keen; biting; severe; as, trenchant wit.
In a trenchant condemnation, Mrs Ogata said 'ethnic cleansing' lay at the very heart of the conflict in Bosnia.
The student musicians certainly gave a strong account of themselves, as they had earlier in a trenchant performance of Stravinsky's Petrushka. As an encore Solti and his young orchestra threw in a spectacularly fiery Die Fledermaus Overture.
And he found himself far less in demand as a conductor, keeping a public presence primarily through his brilliant, if trenchant, essays for the New York Review of Books and his editions of Stravinsky's correspondence.
"First comes the feeding, then the moral code," goes one of Brecht's more trenchant lines.
He had delivered the last of his trenchant commentaries on Tuesday for his "Perspective" segment of Action News on KCBS-TV, the CBS-owned television station in Los Angeles.
Mr Hans Barbier, the economics editor of the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, yesterday signed off a trenchant front-page article by declaring that the European Monetary System was worthless.
For one hour, the chancellor, unhindered by any trenchant questioning, covered a broad range of issues.
Lord Melody's humor was perhaps most trenchant and cutting against his own supposed ugliness.
The criticisms may well re-open the issue of whether inspectors should be allowed to be so trenchant.
Mrs. Thatcher's trenchant adoption of this issue may end up averting more damaging splits between that wing and those in the party belonging to the paternalist tradition.