fences

Noun

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.
   • There was a weak place in the fence separating the two inclosures1865, Horatio Alger, chapter 17, in Paul Prescott's Charge
2. (informal) 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

   Synonyms:

   fencer

3. (broadly) The place whence such a middleman operates.
4. Skill in oral debate.
5. (obsolete, uncountable) 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
6. A guard or guide on machinery.

See all 16 meanings of fence