/fɛns/, [fɛns], [fɛnts]
OriginFrom 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).
- countable, uncountableA thin artificial barrier that separates two pieces of land or forms a perimeter enclosing the lands of a house, building, etc.
“There was a weak place in the fence separating the two inclosures”
“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 lonel”
- countable, informal, uncountableSomeone who hides or buys and sells stolen goods, a criminal middleman for transactions of stolen goods.
“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 swea”
“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 ”
- broadly, countable, uncountableThe place whence such a middleman operates.
- countable, uncountableSkill in oral debate.
- obsolete, uncountableThe art or practice of fencing.
“I bruised my shin th' other day with playing at sword and dagger with a master of fence”
- countable, uncountableA guard or guide on machinery.
- countable, figuratively, uncountableA barrier, for example an emotional barrier.
“I was in your arms
Thinking I belonged there
I figured it made sense
Building me a fence”
- countable, uncountableA memory barrier.
- countable, uncountableThe boundary.
- transitiveTo enclose, contain or separate by building fence.
“[…] pray you, if you know,
Where in the purlieus of this forest stands
A sheep-cote fenc’d about with olive trees?”
“[…] O thou wall,
That girdlest in those wolves, dive in the earth,
And fence not Athens.”
“Here are twenty acres of land, and it is all you can properly farm, unless you have more help than yourself. Now fence and cultivate it, and you can make an abundant living.”
- transitiveTo defend or guard.
“Cosin, our hands I hope shall fence our heads,
And strike off his that makes you threaten vs.”
“[…] I have learn’t
To fence my ear against thy sorceries.”
- transitiveTo engage in the selling or buying of stolen goods.
“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 swea”
- intransitiveTo engage in the sport of fencing.
“Challenges are flying right and left between these bully-swordsmen, these spadassinicides, and poor devils of the robe who have never learnt to fence with anything but a quill.”
- intransitiveTo jump over a fence.
- intransitiveTo conceal the truth by giving equivocal answers; to hedge; to be evasive.
“A lady, sir, as you will find, / Keeps counsel, or she speaks her mind, / Means what she says and scorns to fence / And palter with feigned innocence.”
Formsfences(plural) · fences(present, singular, third-person) · fencing(participle, present) · fenced(participle, past) · fenced(past)
Source: Wiktionary