FENCE IN Definition & Meaning

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fence in

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Idioms and Phrases

Also, hem in . Restrict or confine someone, as in He wanted to take on more assignments but was fenced in by his contract , or Their father was old-fashioned and the children were hemmed in by his rules . Both expressions transfer a literal form of enclosure to a figurative one. The first gained currency from a popular song in the style of a cowboy folk song by Cole Porter, “Don't Fence Me In” (1944), in which the cowboy celebrates open land and starry skies. The variant is much older, dating from the late 1500s.

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

Eight homes will be built on the site, according to a notice tied to the fence in front of the empty patch of land.

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Caught on the patio between the flames and the bomb blast, Cabler had to find another way out, but the area was completely fenced in.

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Supplies for migrants at a field camp run by the American Friends Service Committee that is set up next to the border fence in San Diego.

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Bodycam footage posted online, which has been viewed more than 12 million times, showed the dog standing beside a wire fence in water up to its chest.

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Besides the plywood on the windows, someone had managed to get a large trampoline over the chain-link fence in the backyard and left it there.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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