[fens] 
noun, verb, fenced, fenc⋅ing.| 1. | a barrier enclosing or bordering a field, yard, etc., usually made of posts and wire or wood, used to prevent entrance, to confine, or to mark a boundary. |
| 2. | Informal. a person who receives and disposes of stolen goods. |
| 3. | the place of business of such a person. |
| 4. | the act, practice, art, or sport of fencing. |
| 5. | skill in argument, repartee, etc. |
| 6. | Machinery. a guard or guide, as for regulating the movements of a tool or work. |
| 7. | Carpentry. a slotted guide used esp. with a framing square to lay out cuts on rafters and staircase strings. |
| 8. | Archaic. a means of defense; a bulwark. |
| 9. | to enclose by some barrier, establishing exclusive right to possession: to fence a farm. |
| 10. | to separate by or as by a fence or fences (often fol. by in, off, out, etc.): to fence off a corner of one's yard; to fence out unwholesome influences. |
| 11. | to defend; protect; guard: The president was fenced by bodyguards wherever he went. |
| 12. | to ward off; keep out. |
| 13. | Informal. to sell (stolen goods) to a fence. |
| 14. | Nautical. to reinforce (an opening in a sail or the like) by sewing on a grommet or other device. |
| 15. | to practice the art or sport of fencing. |
| 16. | to parry arguments; strive to avoid giving direct answers; hedge: The mayor fenced when asked if he would run again. |
| 17. | (of a horse) to leap over a fence. |
| 18. | Obsolete. to raise a defense. |
| 19. | mend one's fences, to strengthen or reestablish one's position by conciliation or negotiation: One could tell by his superficially deferential manner that he was trying to mend his fences. |
| 20. | on the fence, uncommitted; neutral; undecided: The party leaders are still on the fence. |
fence
mend one's fences
Improve poor relations; placate personal, political, or business contacts. For example, The senator always goes home weekends and spends time mending his fences. This metaphoric expression dates from an 1879 speech by Senator John Sherman in Mansfield, Ohio, to which he said he had returned "to look after my fences." Although he may have meant literally to repair the fences around his farm there, media accounts of the speech took him to mean campaigning among his constituents. In succeeding decades the term was applied to nonpolitical affairs as well.
