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Apt to break fences or to break out of pasture; unruly; as, breachy cattle.

To shield; to defend. [Obs.] Can Oxford, that did ever fence the right, Now buckler falsehood with a pedigree Shak.

from awkwardness; not bungling; adroit; dexterous; as, aclean trick; a clean leap over a fence.

nclosed place; especially, a small field or piece of land surrounded by a wall, hedge, or fence of any kind; -- specifically, the precinct of a cathedral or abbey. Closes surrounded by the venerable abodes of deans and canons. Macaulay.

Covering; shelter; defence; hiding. Protected by walls or other like coverture. Woodward. Beatrice, who even now Is couched in the woodbine coverture. Shak.

A yard, courtyard, or piece of ground, included within the fence surrounding a dwelling house. Burrill.

To furnish with defenses; to fortify. [Obs.] [Written also defence.] Better manned and more strongly defensed. Hales.

Beaten; hence, blunted. [Obs.] Fencer's swords . . . having the edge dunted. Fuller.

To fence or fortify with stakes; to surround with a line of stakes for defense; to impale. All that dwell near enemies empale villages, to save themselves from surprise. Sir W. Raleigh.

To make a park of; to inclose, as with a fence; to impark. [Obs.]

Being, or by the principles of a lawful human authority; disposition to do wrong; moral offence; wickedness; depravity. The heart of the sons of men is full of evil. Eccl. ix. 3.

t repeatedly; to busy. Herein do I Exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence. Acts xxiv. 16.

The art or practice of attack and defense with the sword, esp. with the s,allword. See Fence, v. i., 2.

d anchor (Naut.) , the anchor by which a ship is held while the tide is rising. -- Flood fence, a fence so secured that it will not be swept away by a flood. -- Flood gate, a gate for shutting out, admitting, or releasing, a body of water; a tide gate. -- Flood mark, the mark or line to which the tide, or a flood, r…

mallsword in the main, but usually lighter and having a button at the point. Blunt as the fencer's foils, which hit, but hurt not. Shak. socrates contended with a foil against Demosthenes with a word. Mitford.

An inclosure for sheep; a sheep pen. Leaps o'er the fence with ease into the fold. Milton.

An opening in anything made by breaking or parting; as, a gap in a fence; an opening for a passage or entrance; an opening which implies a breach or defect; a vacant space or time; a hiatus; a mountain pass. Miseries ensued by the opening of that gap. Knolles. It would make a great gap in your own honor. Shak. Gap lath…

An opening for passage in any inclosing wall, fence, or barrier; or the suspended framework which closes or opens a passage. Also, figuratively, a means or way of entrance or of exit. Knowest thou the way to Dover Both stile and gate, horse way and footpath. Shak. Opening a gate for a long war. Knolles.…

A passage through a fence or wall; a gate; also, a frame, arch, etc., in which a gate in hung, or a structure at an entrance or gate designed for ornament or defense.

To eat gluttonously or to satiety. Like three horses that have broken fence, And glutted all night long breast-deep in corn. Tennyson.