Fence  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

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Wikipedia Wiktionary Tumblr Wikisource YouTube Shop Featured: A Scheme for abolishing all Words is one of the wittiest and smartest comments on semantics. (Illustration: extreme close-up from the movie "The Big Swallow" (1901), produced and directed by James Williamson (1855-1933)

1. A thin, human-constructed barrier which separates two pieces of land or a house perimeter.
   • 1865, Horatio Alger, Paul Prescott's Charge,

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

2. A middleman for transactions of stolen goods.
3. The place whence such a middleman operates.
4. Skill in oral debate.
5. 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.