1. (of a company, government, or individual) reduce costs or spending in response to economic difficulty: "as a result of the recession the company retrenched"Similareconomizecut backmake cutbacksmake savingsmake economiesreduce expenditurebe economicalbe sparingbe frugalbudgettighten one's belthusband one's resourcesdraw in one's hornssavescrimp and savecut corners
Word Originlate 16th century (in the now formal usage): from obsolete French retrencher, variant of retrancher, from re- (expressing reversal) + trancher ‘to cut, slice’.
