fence
/fɛns/
fence noun: a thin artificial barrier that separates two pieces of land or forms a perimeter enclosing the lands of a house, building, etc.
Noun
fence (countable and uncountable, plural fences)
- A 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 inclosures1865, Horatio Alger, chapter 17, in Paul Prescott's Charge
- 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.2013 June 8, “The new masters and commanders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 52
- Someone 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 swear he knew his face.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 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.1984, William Gibson, Neuromancer (Sprawl; book 1), New York, N.Y.: Ace Books, →ISBN, page 73
- Synonyms:
- fencer
- The place whence such a middleman operates.
- Skill in oral debate.
- The art or practice of fencing.
- I bruised my shin th' other day with playing at sword and dagger with a master of fence1599, William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor
- A guard or guide on machinery.
- A barrier, for example an emotional barrier.
- I was in your arms
Thinking I belonged there
I figured it made sense
Building me a fence1980, ABBA, “The Winner Takes It All”
- I was in your arms
- A prohibition enacted to prevent violation of another more primary rule.
- For quite other reasons Jewish religious authorities, too, restricted the size of the orchestra. They sought to erect a "fence" against hilarity and gaiety, out of respect for their ever remembered "Destruction."1929, Abraham Zevi Idelsohn, Jewish Music: Its Historical Development, page 456
- A memory barrier.
- The boundary.
Verb
fence (third-person singular simple present fences, present participle fencing, simple past and past participle fenced)
- To 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?1599, William Shakespeare, As You Like It, act IV, scene 3 - […] O thou wall,
That girdlest in those wolves, dive in the earth,
And fence not Athens.1607, William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens, act IV, scene 1
- […] pray you, if you know,
- To defend or guard.
- Cosin, our hands I hope shall fence our heads,
And strike off his that makes you threaten vs.1594, Christopher Marlowe, Edward II, London: William Jones - […] I have learn’t
To fence my ear against thy sorceries.1671, John Milton, Paradise Regain’d […] to which is added Samson Agonistes, London: John Starkey, Samson Agonistes, page 58, lines 937–938
- Cosin, our hands I hope shall fence our heads,
- To 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 swear he knew his face.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
- Synonyms:
- pawn
- To engage in the sport of fencing (against).
- 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.1921, Rafael Sabatini, Scaramouche
- To jump over a fence.
- To 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.1981, A. D. Hope, “His Coy Mistress to Mr. Marvell”, in A Book of Answers
- You only give me ten minutes. If I am to put my case before you, Mr Carrados, we cannot fence with phrases...1914, Ernest Bramah, Max Carrados
fence meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
fence in Hindi
- barrier
- बाड़ bāṛ
- to enclose by building a fence
- बाड़ा bāṛā
fence in Tamil
- barrier
- வேலி vēli
fence in Marathi
- कुंपण
fence in Urdu
- barrier
- باڑ bāṛ
More languagesFewer languages
- fence in Bengali
- বেড়া beṛa
- fence in Telugu
- కంచె kañce, దడి daḍi
- fence in Malayalam
- വേലി vēli
- fence in Kannada
- ಬೇಲಿ bēli
- fence in Punjabi
- ਵਾੜ vāṛ
- fence in Gujarati
- વાડ vāḍ
- fence in Odia
- ଗଡ଼ gaṛa
- fence in Sanskrit
- स sa
- fence in Sinhala
- වැට wæṭa
- fence in Assamese
- বেৰা bera, জেওৰা zeüra
- fence in Nepali
- बाड़
- fence in Pashto
- کټاره kaṭārá
- fence in Tagalog
- bakod
- fence in Arabic
- سُور sūr, سِيَاج siyāj
- fence in Malay
- pagar
- fence in Indonesian
- pagar, perantara
- fence in Thai
- รั้ว rúua
- fence in Vietnamese
- hàng rào
- fence in Myanmar
- စည်း cany:, အကာ a.ka, ခြံစည်းရိုး hkramcany:rui:
Examples of fence in a sentence
- The neighbours got into an argument about the branches of the trees that extended over the fence.
- They must balance themselves down the fence until they reach the end.
- To build a sturdy fence, you have to ram the posts deep into the ground.
Synonyms of fence
Forms of fence
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | fences |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | fences |
| present participle | fencing |
| past participle | fenced |
| past | fenced |
Origin of fence
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).
Words formed from fence
- back-fence
- Belgian fence
- brush fence
- buck fence
- Chesterton's fence
- code fence
- cyclone fence
- dingo fence
- drop fence
- electrical fence
- fedge
- fenceful
- fence hopper
- Fence Houses
- Fencehouses
- fenceless
- fencelet
- fencelike
- fence line
- fenceline
- fence lizard
- fence-mending
- fence month
- fence off
- fencepole
- fencepost
- fence-post
- fence post
- fencerow
- fence-sit
- fence sitter
- fence-sitter
- fence-sitting
- fence the tables
- fence time
- fence-viewer
- fence viewer
- fence wire
- fencing
- flower-fence
- forefence
- geo-fence
- geofence
- ghetto fence
- good fences make good neighbors
- homely as a hedge fence
- jackleg fence
- living 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
Phrases with fence
- fence in
- noah fence
- rode fence
- sand fence
- snow fence
- sunk fence
- wing fence
- worm fence
- catch fence
- fence lines
- fence posts
- fence times
36 more phrasesFewer phrases
- fence wires
- rides fence
- snake fence
- spite fence
- fence months
- picket fence
- ridden fence
- riding fence
- fence hoppers
- fence lizards
- fence sitters
- sit the fence
- electric fence
- Virginia fence
- sat on the fence
- sit on the fence
- split rail fence
- sits on the fence
- rail fence ciphers
- white picket fence
- swing for the fence
- Virginia rail fence
- niggers in the fence
- sitting on the fence
- western fence lizard
- made a Virginia fence
- western fence lizards
- makes a Virginia fence
- Small Yard, High Fence
- making a Virginia fence
- threw one's hat over the fence
- throw one's hat over the fence
- thrown one's hat over the fence
- throws one's hat over the fence
- throwing one's hat over the fence
- the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence
Words that rhyme with fence
Questions about fence
- What does fence mean?
- Fence means a thin artificial barrier that separates two pieces of land or forms a perimeter enclosing the lands of a house, building, etc.
- What is fence in Hindi?
- Fence in Hindi is बाड़ (bāṛ), बाड़ा (bāṛā). See Fence meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is fence?
- Fence can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce fence?
- Fence is pronounced /fɛns/.
- What is the plural of fence?
- The plural of fence is fences.
Words near fence in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: fence (page history and authors); fence (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ਵਾੜ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); વાડ (Gujarati) (page history and authors); ଗଡ଼ (Odia) (page history and authors); स (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); fence (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-fence.ogg.
Cite this entry: “fence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fence. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.