as in to reduce
formal
to change the way things are done in order to spend less money
When the economy slowed, the company was forced to retrench.
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Recent Examples of retrench
But any business that has benefited from supply chains that are efficient and cost effective (which is to say most of them) will now have to retrench in order to reduce its exposure to trade policy and geopolitical risks.
—
Eswar Prasad, Foreign Affairs, 3 Apr. 2025
Recent data shows that U.S. banks are indeed retrenching.
—Chris Scharman, Forbes.com, 3 Apr. 2025
Other banks are retrenching, too, as customers rely increasingly heavily on digital banking.
—David Staats, Idaho Statesman, 12 Mar. 2025
According to recent reports, Berkshire Hathaway is now sitting on a pile of $334 billion in cash as the company has retrenched from stocks over the past couple of years.
—Kevin Williams, Quartz, 18 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for retrench
Eswar Prasad, Foreign Affairs, 3 Apr. 2025
Recent data shows that U.S. banks are indeed retrenching.
—Chris Scharman, Forbes.com, 3 Apr. 2025
Other banks are retrenching, too, as customers rely increasingly heavily on digital banking.
—David Staats, Idaho Statesman, 12 Mar. 2025
According to recent reports, Berkshire Hathaway is now sitting on a pile of $334 billion in cash as the company has retrenched from stocks over the past couple of years.
—Kevin Williams, Quartz, 18 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for retrench
Recent Examples of Synonyms for retrench
Verb
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Answer: Your withdrawals from retirement plans won’t reduce your Social Security directly.—
Liz Weston,
Los Angeles Times,
3 May 2025
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The trial of estrogen alone also raised safety concerns, though both types of therapy reduced the risk of bone fractures.—
Jean Wactawski-Wende,
The Conversation,
2 May 2025
Verb
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The state says the rule is crucial to meeting greenhouse gas emission reduction targets and cutting smog-forming pollutants.—
David Shepardson,
USA Today,
29 Apr. 2025
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With the new order, Trump is threatening to cut federal funds to cities and states his Administration decides are blocking his mass deportation effort.—
Brian Bennett,
Time,
29 Apr. 2025
Verb
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Project 2025 was a sweeping blueprint from the 2024 campaign season from the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, to slash the federal workforce and dismantle federal agencies.—
Lisa Mascaro and Josh Boak,
Los Angeles Times,
2 May 2025
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The plan would slash $18 billion out of the N.I.H. budget, shrinking it to $27 billion — a stark contrast from its heyday in the 1990s, when a bipartisan Congress voted to double its budget within five years because Republicans argued biomedical research was an engine for economic growth.—
Sheryl Gay Stolberg,
New York Times,
2 May 2025
Verb
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Four years ago, Joseph R. Biden Jr. collected $62 million (nearly $76 million in 2025 dollars) for his inauguration, though that celebration was pared down because of the coronavirus pandemic.—
Theodore Schleifer,
New York Times,
21 Apr. 2025
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Meanwhile, the euro was choppy on Monday, paring gains against the greenback to fall 0.3% in the afternoon.—
Jenni Reid,
CNBC,
14 Apr. 2025
Verb
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And the performance gap between American and Japanese horses is shrinking.—
Peter Keating,
New York Times,
1 May 2025
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For a short period during the chaos of the early pandemic, the state’s estimates started to diverge from the national estimates for California’s population, but that gap has shrunk as the two sources have largely re-aligned.—
Harriet Blair Rowan,
Mercury News,
1 May 2025
Verb
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Recently organized boycotts against corporations that have substantially curtailed their DEI efforts, like Target, have been effective and provide environmentalists with a powerful blueprint to follow.—
Jerel Ezell,
Time,
22 Apr. 2025
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But critics have questioned why the church, historically a defender of human rights and Christian values, would willingly join forces with the Chinese government, which under leader Xi Jinping has further curtailed religious freedom.—
Nectar Gan,
CNN Money,
22 Apr. 2025
Verb
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All four players had fond memories of the tournament, with Dostál offering a bit of good-natured ribbing toward Pastrnak and recalling not only his triumph of 2024 but his first experience in 2022, when his tournament was truncated by an injury.—
Andrew Knoll,
Oc Register,
25 Mar. 2025
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However, there is no compelling reason to believe that truncating the number of neurons is an optimal strategy.—
Sam Mugel,
Forbes,
5 Mar. 2025
Verb
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The number of Jesuits globally has steadily decreased since the 1960s, when there were more than 36,000.—
Marc Ramirez,
USA Today,
27 Apr. 2025
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There has been a decreasing number of swing districts, only a few dozen now.—
Domenico Montanaro,
NPR,
25 Apr. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Retrench.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/retrench. Accessed 6 May. 2025.
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