trench stick

English

Noun

trench stick (plural trench sticks)

1. A type of baton or cane used by soldiers in military trenches, especially of the First World War, for manoeuvring and for basic combat.
   • 1859 January 30, William Howard Russell, My Diary in India:

     Paid a visit to Sir Robert Garrett, whom I was glad to find looking just as well as in the old days when he used to trudge past my hut with his "trench-stick" in his hand.

   • 1920, Philip Hamilton Gibbs, People of Destiny:

     He made a circle in the dust with his trench stick, and stared into the center of it.

   • 1919, Lord Dunsany, Unhappy Far-off Things:

     When I had finished speaking of the future, he raised a knobbed stick that he carried, up to the level of his throat, surely his son's old trench stick, and there he let it dangle from a piece of string in the handle, which he held against his neck.

Translations

baton used in trenches

• French: canne des tranchées f