Fence sb. World English Historical Dictionary

Fence sb. World English Historical Dictionary Dictionary Biographies Literary Criticism Welcome Terms of Service ⧏ Previous Next ⧐ Contents Slice Contents Key Bibliographic Record Murray’s New English Dictionary. 1901, rev. 2022. Fence sb. Also 4 fens, 6 fenst. [aphet. f. of DEFENCE.]

1   † 1.  The action of defending; = DEFENCE. Also, the attitude of self-defence; in To stand at fence.

2 c. 1330.  R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 8638.        Þen Octa studied in his þought: To stonde to fens auailled nought.

3 1375.  Barbour, Bruce, XX. 384. That for default of fenss so was To-fruschit in-to placis ser.

4 c. 1430.  Syr Tryam., 550.        They myght not gete hymn therfro, He stode at fence ageyne them tho.

5 a. 1400–50.  Alexander, 4753. For nouthire fondis he to flee · ne na fens made.

6 c. 1500.  Felon Sowe Rokeby, in Whitaker, Craven (1878), 569.        Yet, for the fence that he colde make,   Scho strake yt fro his hande.

7   † b.  Cap of fence: see CAP sb. 4 c. Coat of fence: see COAT sb. 5. So Doublet of fence: see DOUBLET. House of fence: a fortified house. Man of fence: a defender. Obs.

8 c. 1425.  Wyntoun, Cron., IX. xxi. 12. Ðe Hous of fens of Dalwolsy.

9 1463.  Mann. & Househ. Exp. (1841), 158. Ffusten … ffor to make doblettys off ffence.

10 c. 1470.  Henry the Minstrel, Wallace, V. 1095. No man of fens is left that house within.

11 1488.  Will of Sharnebourne (Somerset Ho.). Doblette of fence.

12 1514.  Will of R. Peke of Wkd., 4 June. All my cottes of fense of manse body.

13 1555.  Reg. Gild Corp. Christi York (Surtees), 202. My coote of fenst, and steele cappe.

14 1664.  Flodden F., I. 5. Each house of fence to fortify.

15   2.  The action, practice, or art of fencing, or use of the sword. To make fence: to assume a fencing attitude. Also, Master, teacher of fence.

16 1533.  Udall, Flowres Latine Speaking (1560), 133. Disciplina gladiatoria, is the preceptes and waie of trainyng men in the weapons and the schooles that maisters of fence keepe.

17 1535.  in W. H. Turner, Select. Rec. Oxford, 131. Dennys, a poore scholler and a teacher of fence.

18 1599.  Shaks., Much Ado, V. i. 75.        Ile proue it on his body if he dare, Despight his nice fence, and his active practise.

19 1651.  Hobbes, Leviath., I. v. 22. Trusting to the false rules of a master of Fence, ventures præsumptuously upon an adversary, that either kills, or disgraces him.

20 1828.  Scott, F. M. Perth, iv. A man must know his fence, or have a short lease of his life.

21 1831.  Examiner, 17/2. He will point his sword at shadows, and make fence at your cat.

22 1855.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., IV. 459. Had he [Wharton] not been a man of imperturbable temper, dountless courage and consummate skill in fence, his life would have been a short one.

23 1863.  Mrs. C. Clarke, Shaks. Char., iii. 87. I have always been struck with the dialogue between Hamlet and Osric, the ‘gilded water-fly,’ as he terms him, who comes to announce to the Prince the wager at fence with Laertes.

24   b.  transf.

25 1634.  Milton, Comus, 790.        Enjoy your deer Wit, and gay Rhetorick That hath so well been taught her dazling fence.

26 1862.  Merivale, Rom. Emp. (1865), V. xliv. 254. Fence of tongue was the weapon with which they were to maintain against every assailant their honour, their fortunes, and their lives.

27 1871.  Blackie, Four Phases, i. 79. The Sophists were cunning masters of fence, who had no cause to fight for except themselves and their own pockets.

28 1883.  H. D. Traill, Wanted, an Elisha, in Contemporary Review, XLIII. June, 871. That shrewd critic and experienced professor of Parliamentary fence would have been far less shocked at the presumption of the performance, than many of its actual observers.

29   † 3.  Means or method of defence; protection, security. Obs.

30 c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 155/1. Fence, defence fro enmyes, proteccio, defensio.

31 1565.  Jewel, Repl. Harding, 550. It is thought to be the surest fence, & strongest warde for that Religion, that they should be keapte stil in ignorance.

32 1627.  May, Lucan, II. 408.        His choisest buildings were but fence for cold: His best attire tough gownes, such as of old Was Romane weare; and nothing but desire Of progeny in him warm’d Venus fire.

33 1691.  T. H[ale], Acc. New Invent., 39. To deliver up his Majesty’s Ships to the mercy of the Worm, by sending them abroad wholly unprovided of any Fence against them.

34 1745.  De Foe’s Eng. Tradesman (1841), I. ix. 66. Though employment is said to be the best fence against temptations, and he that is busy heartily in his business, temptations to idleness and negligence will not be so busy about him, yet tradesmen are as often drawn from their business as other men.

35 1756.  Nugent, Montesquieu’s Spir. Laws (1758), I. XII. ii. 261. The subject has no fence to secure his innocence.

36 Proverb.

37 1674.  N. Fairfax, A Treatise of the Bulk and Selvedge of the World, 98. I dare be bold to say, ’Tis such a flail as there can ne’re be fence for.

38 1730.  Swift, Poems, On Stephen Duck, 115. The Proverb says; No Fence against a Flail.

39   4.  concr. That which serves as a defence.

40   † a.  Of persons: A bulwark, defence. Obs.

41 c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 7363.        He was fully the fens & the fyn stuff Of all the tulkes of Troy.

42 1552.  Godly Prayers, in Liturg. Serv. Q. Eliz. (1847), 248. O Lord Jesus Christ, the only stay and fence of our mortal state, our only hope, our only salvation, our glory, and our triumph.

43   b.  Of things: A defence, bulwark, arch. (now with mixture of sense 5).

44 c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 155/1. Fence, or defence of closynge (clothynge, P.).

45 1548.  Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. Luke x. 4. I send you forth naked, wythout weapon or fense.

46 1671.  Grew, The Anatomy of Plants (1682), I. ii. 17. The Skin is the Fence of the Cortical Body.

47 1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., II. 481.        A hilly Heap of Stones above to lay, And press the Plants with Sherds of Potters Clay. This Fence against immod’rate Rain they found; Or when the Dog-star cleaves the thirsty Ground.

48 1700.  S. L., trans. C. Fryke’s Voy. E. Ind., 183. It is a mighty Fence to the City Odia; because the River over-flowing at certain Seasons, no Enemy can Besiege it but for some Months.

49 1727.  Swift, Gulliver, IV. iv. 278. My whole body wanted a Fence against Heat and Cold, which I was forced to put on and off every Day with Tediousness and Trouble.

50 1814.  Scott, Ld. of Isles, III. xix.        Goat-skins or deer-hides o’er them cast, Made a rude fence against the blast.

51 1838.  Thirlwall, Greece, II. 278. They hastily formed a high fence out of the wrecks round the fleet.

52   fig.  1732.  Lediard, Sethos, II. Strangers would not believe there was a sufficient fence against crimes.

53 1860.  Pusey, The Minor Prophets, 311. They sin, who first remove the skin, as it were, or outward tender fences of God’s graces.

54   † c.  spec. The tusk of an elephant (= Fr. défense). Also, the involucre of a flower. Obs.

55 1727.  Philip Quarll, 219. The Fences of an Elephant, and the Tusks of a Wild Boar.

56 1776.  Withering, Brit. Plants (1796), II. 171. Involucrum, or fence, 2 leafits, or awn-like substances to each floret.

57   5.  An enclosure or barrier (e.g., a hedge, wall, railing, palisade, etc.) along the boundary of a field, park, yard or any place which it is desired to defend from intruders. Sunk fence: one placed along the bottom of a depression in the ground; sometimes applied to a ditch. Often preceded by a qualifying word, as: gun-, pale-, quick-, ring-, snake-, wire-, etc. fence, for which see those words.

58 1512.  Nottingham Rec., III. 340. Owre fense be twixe our medo and Wilforth Pastur.

59 1570.  Levins, Manip., 63/16. A Fence, vallum.

60 1611.  Bible, Ps. lxii. 3. Ye shall be slaine all of you: as a bowing wall shall ye be, and as a tottering fence.

61 1697.  Dryden, Virg. Æneid, IX. 456.        The famished lion thus, with hunger bold, O’erleaps the fences of the nightly fold.

62 1711.  Addison, Spect., No. 56, 4 May, ¶ 3. This huge Thicket of Thorns and Brakes was designed as a kind of Fence or quick-set Hedge to the ghosts in enclosed.

63 1767.  A. Young, Farmer’s Lett. People, 62. They … keep their fences in admirable repair.

64 1786.  Gilpin Obs. Pict. Beauty Cumbrld., I. 136. The lake performing the office of a sunk fence.

65 1832.  Act 2–3 Will. IV., c. 64. Sched. O. 1648. That point in a stone fence which is immediately opposite a … pool.

66 1832.  Ht. Martineau, Ireland, i. 2. A turf bank, was the best kind of fence used.

67 1891.  Edge, in Law Times, XC. 395/1. An ordinary fence, consisting of a ditch and a bank.

68   b.  transf. and fig.

69 1639.  Fuller, Holy War, I. iii. (1840), 4. When the fence of order was broken.

70 1691.  Hartcliffe, Virtues, 105. Those, who have broken through all the Fences of Law, may be taken out of Human Society, which they would otherwise destroy and bring into Confusion.

71 1712–4.  Pope, Rape Lock, II. 117.          To fifty chosen Sylphs, of special note, We trust th’ important charge, the petticoat: Oft have we known that seven-fold fence to fail, Though stiff with hoops and armed with ribs of whale.

72 1761–2.  Hume, Hist. Eng. (1806), V. lxx. 250. To throw down all fences of the constitution.

73 1820.  Lamb, Elia, Ser. I., Christ’s Hospital. Hunger (eldest, strongest of the passions!) predominant, breaking down the stony fences of shame, and awkwardness, and a troubled over-consciousness.

74   c.  Phrases: chiefly U.S. (To stand or sit) on or upon the fence: (to be) undecided in opinion, or neutral in action. (To be) on a person’s, the other side of the fence: (to be) on his side, on the side opposed to him. To descend on the right side of the fence: to take the side of the winner. To put one’s horse at a fence: to spur him on to leap it. To make a Virginia fence: ‘to walk like a drunken man’ (Lowell, Biglow Papers, Introd.).

75 1745.  Franklin, Drinker’s Dict., Wks. 1887, II. 26. He makes a Virginia Fence.

76 1848.  Lowell, Biglow P., Poems, 1890, II. 82.        Wen every fool knows thet a man represents Not the fellers that sent him, but them on the fence.     Ibid. (1862), 287. I mean a kin’ o’ hangin’ roun’ an’ settin’ on the fence, Till Prov’dunce pinted how to jump an’ save the most expense.

77 1852.  Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., vi. It’s allers best to stand missis’s side the fence.

78 1863.  Holland, Lett. Joneses, v. 80. Any man who would stand upon the fence.

79 1887.  A. Lang, Myth, Ritual & Relig., II. Appendix C. 350. Mr. [Lewis] Morgan reaches the climax of his theory, and puts his hobby at its highest fence, when he actually declares that the Aztecs ‘had scarcely anything of value to Europeans.’

80 1891.  Salisbury, in Guardian, 28 Jan., 158/2. They gently descended on the right side of the fence.

81   6.  Technical uses.

82   a.  A guard, guide, or gauge designed to regulate the movements of a tool or machine.

83 1703.  Moxon, Mech. Exerc., 72. The Fence of the Plow [a grooving-plane] is set to that Distance off the Iron-Plate of the Plow, that you intend the Groove shall lie off the edge of the Board. Ibid., 79. The Handle should on either side become a Fence to the Tongue. Ibid., 90. These Nails are … to serve for Fences to set, and fit each piece into its proper place.

84 1823.  P. Nicholson, Pract. Build., 222. Fence of a Plane.—A guard, which obliges it to work to a certain horizontal breadth from the arris.

85 1872.  J. Richards, Wood-working Machinery, 185. A long strip or fence passing behind as well as in front of the saw.

86   b.  (See quots.)

87 1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Fence, the arm of the hammer-spring of a gun-lock.

88 1874.  Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 835/2. Fence. (Locks.) An arm or projection which enters the gates of the tumblers when they are adjusted in proper position and coincidence.

89   c.  A ferrule. rare.

90 1862.  Borrow, Wild Wales, I. 231. A thin polished black stick … at the end was a brass fence.

91   7.  A state of prohibition. rare exc. attrib.; cf. fence-date, -month, -season, -time in 11.

92 1874.  Stubbs, The Constitutional History of England (1875), I. xii. 537. [By the Great Charter] all rivers placed in fence [L. in defenso] are thrown open.

93   8.  Thieves’ slang. a. A receiver of stolen goods.

94 a. 1700.  B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew. Crew.

95 1714.  Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.), p. 3. The Fence and he [a thief], are like the Devil and the Doctor, they live by one another.

96 1812.  Sporting Mag., XXXIX. Feb., 209/2. He [Habberfield] … was considered the safest fence about town, as his dwelling was suitable to concealment, and garrisoned by buffers, so as to render it impregnable to a sudden attack.

97 1838.  Dickens, O. Twist, xiii. What are you up to? Ill-treating the boys, you covetous, avaricious, in-sa-ti-a-ble old fence?

98   b.  A receiving house for stolen goods.

99 1847.  Illust. Lond. News, 22 May, 232. In Clerkenwell broods the darkness of utter ignorance. In its lanes and alleys the lowest debauch, the coarsest enjoyment, the most infuriate passions, the most restrained vice, roar, and riot. The keeper of the ‘fence’ loves to set up in business there.

100 1848.  Punch, XIV. 149 If Citizen Blanc hold to his opinions of 1839, we may expect no law of international copyright from the Republic. Let M. Galignani rejoice; and let his Bibliothèque in the Rue Vivienne still remain the greatest literary ‘fence’ in Europe.

101 1863.  W. B. Jerrold, Signals of Distress, iii. 26. Here is a little army that might do incalculable good if it would approach the slums of London—the fences and padding-kens, the sloppy alleys and the fever gardens—in a thoroughly sensible spirit.

102   9.  Sc. Law. [from the vb.] The action of fencing in various senses. Cf. FENCE v. 8.

103 1541.  Burgh Rec. Prestwick, 2 June (1834), 57. For þe losen of ane fens maid be þe said Allexr. apoun ane wob of Jonat Hunter.

104 c. 1575.  Balfour, Practicks, 273. The affirmatioun and fence of the court, that na man tak speach upon hand without leave askit and obtenit, except the persewar and defender.

105   10.  attrib. and Comb. General relations: a. appositive (sense 5), as fence-wall. b. attributive (sense 2), as fence-school; (sense 4 b), as † fence-fabric; (sense 5), as, fence-corner, -post.

106 1876.  Daily News, 5 Oct., 6/1. He sallies from his siesta in a *fence corner.

107 1609.  Holland, Amm. Marcell., XXIX. ix. 253. The *Fence-fabrickes and all devices else requisite for a siege, were in readinesse.

108 1874.  Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 836/1. *Fence-post Driver. A device like a trip-hammer or pile-driver, mounted upon wheels, and used for driving fence-posts which have been previously sharpened.

109 1885.  H. C. McCook, Tenants of an Old Farm, 196. When he saw me I was standing by a fence-post, watching a small saltigrade spider mount into the air.

110 1598.  Barret, Theor. Warres, I. i. 7. A man haunting long the warres, and seeing litle execution, is as one that vseth often the *Fence-schooles, but neuer taketh weapon in hand.

111 1642.  Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., IV. x. 285. He [Augustine] was diligent in continuall preaching, and beating down of Hereticks, expecially the Manicheans, in whose Fence-school he was formerly brought up, and therefore knew best how to him them, and guard himself.

112 1823.  P. Nicholson, Pract. Build., 338. *Fence-Wall—A wall used to prevent the encroachment of men or animals.

113   11.  Special comb.: fence-guards (see quot.); fence-jack (see quot.); fence-lizard (see quot.); † fence-man, a gladiator; fence-month, (a) originally the time of fawning for deer, a period of about 30 days at the end of June and beginning of July, during which hunting was forbidden; (b) more broadly: the close season for fishing, etc., during the time of breeding, not always being restricted to one month; fence-play, † (a) a gladiatorial combat; (b) transf. discussion; † fence-roof, a roof for defence = L. testudo; fence-season, fence-time, a close season or time for fish, swans, etc. (see fence-month); fence-shop, a shop at which stolen goods are sold; fence-viewer, (U.S.) an officer whose duty it is to see to the erection and maintenance of boundary and highway fences.

114 1883.  W. S. Gresley, Gloss. Coal Mining, *Fence-guards, rails fixed round the mouth of a pit-shaft, to keep people and things from falling in.

115 1874.  Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 836/1. *Fence-jack. A lever jack adapted for lifting the corner or lock of a worm-fence in order to lay in a new bottom-rail, a fence-chunk, or a stone.

116 1889.  Century Dict., *Fence-lizard, the common small lizard or swift of the United States.

117 1553.  Grimalde, Cicero’s Offices, II. (1558), 98. With hired *fencemen he suppressed all Publius Clodius attempts.

118 1580.  Hollyband, Treas. Fr. Tong, Gladiateur … a maister of Fence, a fence man.

119 1594.  Crompton, Jurisdiction, 197. *Fence moneth is alwaies xv dales afore Midsomer and xv daies after.

120 1766.  Pennant, Zool. (1769), III. 245. There is no law for preserving the fish in it during the fence months.

121 1855.  Doran, Queens Eng. Ho. Hanover, II. vii. 117. The bucks were denied, and he himself once shut out, on pretence it was fence month.

122 1580.  North, Plutarch (1676), 434. Games … Wrestlings, and *Fence-playes.

123 1878.  Browning, La Saisiaz, 161.        If I dared no self-deception when, a week since, I and you Walked and talked along the grass-path, passing lightly in review What seemed hits and what seemed misses in a certain fence-play,—strife Sundry minds of mark engaged in ‘On the Soul and Future Life.’

124 1609.  Holland, Amm. Marcell., XXIX. xiv. 372. The Romans … fitted their shields close one to another in manner of a *fence-roufe.

125 1880.  Times, 21 Dec., 6/4. To stop … the alleged traffic of salmon during the ‘close’ or *‘fence’ season.

126 1789.  G. Parker, Life’s Painter, xv. 153. In Field-lane, where the handkerchiefs are carried, there are a number of shops called *Fence-shops, where you may buy any number.

127 1546.  Plumpton Corr., 251. Ye shall come no time wrong, *fence-time then other.

128 1584.  in Binnell, Descr. Thames (1758), 63. Fence Month and Times, in which these Fishes are not to be taken.

129 1886.  J. Hopkins’ Univ. Stud., IV. 20. In 1647, *fence viewers were appointed, by whom … every new building had to be approved.

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