fence
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /fɛns/
ipa: [fɛns]
ipa: [fɛnts]
rhymes: -ɛns
Forms: form: fences
Etymology: From Middle English fence, fens, short for defence, defens (“the act of defending”), from Old French defens, defense (see defence).
The sense "enclosure" arises in the mid 15th century.
Also from the 15th century is use as a verb in the sense "to enclose with a fence". The generalized sense "to defend, screen, protect" arises ca. 1500. The sense "to fight with swords (rapiers)" is from the 1590s (Shakespeare).
Displaced native Old English heġe (compare Modern English hedge).
Senses: examples: text: There was a weak place in the fence separating the two inclosures
ref: 1865, Horatio Alger, chapter 17, in Paul Prescott's Charge:
text: From the ground, Colombo’s port does not look like much. Those entering it are greeted by wire fences, walls dating back to colonial times and security posts. For mariners leaving the port after lonely nights on the high seas, the delights of the B52 Night Club and Stallion Pub lie a stumble away.
ref: 2013 June 8, “The new masters and commanders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 52:
glosses: A thin artificial barrier that separates two pieces of land or forms a perimeter enclosing the lands of a house, building, etc.
examples: text: The Bat—they called him the Bat.[…]. He'd never been in stir, the bulls had never mugged him, he didn't run with a mob, he played a lone hand, and fenced his stuff so that even the fence couldn't swear he knew his face.
ref: 1920, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Avery Hopwood, chapter I, in The Bat: A Novel from the Play (Dell Book; 241), New York, N.Y.: Dell Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 01:
text: The Finn was a fence, a trafficker in stolen goods, primarily in software. In the course of this business, he sometimes came into contact with other fences, some of whom dealt in the more traditional articles of the trade.
ref: 1984, William Gibson, Neuromancer (Sprawl; book 1), New York, N.Y.: Ace Books, →ISBN, page 73:
synonyms: fencer
glosses: Someone who hides or buys and sells stolen goods, a criminal middleman for transactions of stolen goods.
glosses: The place whence such a middleman operates.
glosses: Skill in oral debate.
examples: text: I bruised my shin th' other day with playing at sword and dagger with a master of fence
ref: 1599, William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor:
glosses: The art or practice of fencing.
glosses: A guard or guide on machinery.
examples: text: I was in your arms
Thinking I belonged there
I figured it made sense
Building me a fence
ref: 1980, ABBA, “The Winner Takes It All”:
glosses: A barrier, for example an emotional barrier.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
programming
sciences
glosses: A memory barrier.
topics: ball-games
cricket
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: The boundary.
Hyponyms: catch fence
electric fence
picket fence
snow fence
Derived terms: back-fence
Belgian fence
brush fence
buck fence
Chesterton's fence
cyclone fence
dingo fence
drop fence
electrical fence
fedge
fenceful
fence hopper
Fence Houses
Fencehouses
fenceless
fencelet
fencelike
fenceline
fence line
fence lizard
fence-mending
fence month
fence off
fencepole
fence-post
fence post
fencepost
fencerow
fence-sit
fence-sitter
fence sitter
fence-sitting
fence the tables
fence time
fence viewer
fence-viewer
fence wire
fencing
flower-fence
forefence
geofence
geo-fence
ghetto fence
good fences make good neighbors
homely as a hedge fence
jackleg fence
make a Virginia fence
mend fences
mud fence
nigger in the fence
on the fence
over the fence
perimeter fence
rail fence cipher
ride fence
rip fence
ripgut fence
roundpole fence
rush one's fences
sand fence
sit on the fence
sit the fence
snake fence
spite fence
split rail fence
stone-fence
sunk fence
swing for the fence
swing for the fences
the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence
throw one's hat over the fence
unfence
Virginia fence
Virginia rail fence
western fence lizard
white picket fence
wing fence
worm fence
Related terms: wire netting
wire gauze