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fence

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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).

• IPA^(key): /fɛns/, [fɛns], [fɛnts]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛns

fence (countable and uncountable, plural fences)

1. A thin artificial barrier that separates two pieces of land or forms a perimeter enclosing the lands of a house, building, etc.
   • 1865, Horatio Alger, chapter 17, in Paul Prescott's Charge:

     There was a weak place in the fence separating the two inclosures

   • 2013 June 8, “The new masters and commanders”, in The Economist‎^[1], volume 407, number 8839, page 52:

     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.

2. (informal) Someone who hides or buys and sells stolen goods, a criminal middleman for transactions of stolen goods.

   Synonym: fencer

   • 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:

     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.

   • 1984, William Gibson, Neuromancer (Sprawl; book 1), New York, N.Y.: Ace Books, →ISBN, page 73:

     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.

3. (by extension) The place whence such a middleman operates.
4. Skill in oral debate.
5. (obsolete, uncountable) The art or practice of fencing.
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor:

     I bruised my shin th' other day with playing at sword and dagger with a master of fence

6. A guard or guide on machinery.
7. (figuratively) A barrier, for example an emotional barrier.
   • 1980, ABBA, “The Winner Takes It All”:

     I was in your arms
     Thinking I belonged there
     I figured it made sense
     Building me a fence

8. (programming) A memory barrier.
9. (cricket) The boundary.

• catch fence
• electric fence
• picket fence
• snow fence

• → Pennsylvania German: Fens

• wire netting
• wire gauze

fence (third-person singular simple present fences, present participle fencing, simple past and past participle fenced)

1. (transitive) To enclose, contain or separate by building fence.
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, As You Like It‎^[2], act IV, scene 3:

     […] pray you, if you know,
     Where in the purlieus of this forest stands
     A sheep-cote fenc’d about with olive trees?

   • 1607, William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens‎^[3], act IV, scene 1:

     […] O thou wall,
     That girdlest in those wolves, dive in the earth,
     And fence not Athens.

   • 1856, George A. Smith, The Saints Should Divest Themselves of Old Traditions:

     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.

2. (transitive) To defend or guard.
   • 1594, Christopher Marlowe, Edward II‎^[4], London: William Jones:

     Cosin, our hands I hope shall fence our heads,
     And strike off his that makes you threaten vs.

   • 1671, John Milton, Paradise Regain’d […] to which is added Samson Agonistes‎^[5], London: John Starkey, Samson Agonistes, page 58, lines 937–938:

     […] I have learn’t
     To fence my ear against thy sorceries.

3. (transitive) To engage in the selling or buying of stolen goods.
   • 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:

     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.

4. (intransitive, sports) To engage in the sport of fencing.
   • 1921, Rafael Sabatini, Scaramouche:

     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.

5. (intransitive, equestrianism) To jump over a fence.
6. (intransitive) To conceal the truth by giving equivocal answers; to hedge; to be evasive.
   • 1981, A. D. Hope, “His Coy Mistress to Mr. Marvell”, in A Book of Answers:

     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.

• (to sell or buy stolen goods): pawn

• IPA^(key): [ˈfɛnt͡sɛ]
• Rhymes: -ɛntsɛ
• Hyphenation: fen‧ce

fence

1. dative singular of fenka
   • 2013, Jana Holá, transl., Oběť Molochovi‎^[6], Host, translation of Till offer åt Molok by Åsa Larsson, →ISBN, page 303:

     „Zmiz,“ zašeptá fence chraptivě do ucha.

     "Clear off," she whispers hoarsely to the bitch's ear.

2. locative singular of fenka
   • 1969, Stanislav Budín, Dynastie Kennedyů, Praha: Naše vojsko, page 126:

     Chruščov se rozesmál a vyprávěl o nových sovětských družicích, o fence Lajce, která byla prvním živým tvorem ve vesmíru a nedávno vrhla štěňata.

     Khrushchev started laughing and talked about new Soviet satellites, about the bitch Laika, who was the first alive creature in space and who gave birth to her puppies not a long time ago.