fencing machine (fensingmashen")

A machine for shaping, fitting, and finishing posts, rails, etc., for fences. fencing-school (fen's ing-sköl), n. A school in which fencing is taught. You little think he was at fencing -school At four o'clock this morning. Middle ton , Mas singer , and Rowley , Old Law, iii. 2. fen-cricket (fen'kriket), n. The mole-cricket, Gryllotalpa vulgar is . fend1 (fend), v. [ He com right son [soon] Normundie to fend . Langtoft's Chron . (ed. Hearne), p. 195. Now, good syr justyce, be my frende, And fende me of my fone [foes]. Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode (Child's Ballads, V. 63). One day thou wilt be blest; So still obey the guiding hand that fends Thee safely through these wonders for sweet ends. Keats , Endymion, ii. He could not and did not try to fend himself against the keen edge of the terrible doubts, the awful mysteries. The Century, XXVI. 540. 2. To keep off; prevent from entering or impinging; ward off; forbid: usually followed by off: as, to fend off blows. Compare fen2. Faires do fall so seldome in a yeare That when they come, prouision must be made To fende the frost in hardest winter nights. Gas coigne, Steele Glas (ed. Arber), p. 66. God fend that the fear of this diligence which must then be us'd doe not make us affect the lazines of a licencing Church. Milton , Areopagitica, p. 41. Dryden , the of Virgil's Georgics. Ye had aye a good roof ower your head to fend aff the Scott , Antiquary, xxxvii. Spread with straw the bedding of thy fold, With fern beneath, to fend the bitter cold. weather. But there is neither bread nor kale, To fend my men and me. Border Minstrelsy, Battle of Otter bourne. But gi'e them guid cow-milk their fill, Till they be fit to fend themsel'. Burns, Death of Mailie. II. in trans. 1. To act in opposition; offer resistance.- 2. To parry; fence.-3. To make provision; give care. [Scotch.] and fended Scott, Old Mortality, vii. I hae aye dune whate'er ye bade me,... weel for ye. Ah! but they must turn out and fend for themselves. George Eliot, Mill on the Flo , i. 8. To fend and provet, to argue and defend. It was a manifest sign indeed of no contentious spirit, and that delighted not in fending and proving , as we say. Strype , Memorials, III. ii. 28. The dexterous management of terms, and being able to fend and prove with them, pa es for a great part of learning; but it is learning distinct from knowledge. Locke . fend1 (fend), n. [ fend1 , v.] The shift which one makes for one's self, whether for sustenance or in any other respect; self-defense or self-support. [Scotch.] I'm thinking wi' sic a braw fallow, In poortith I might mak' a fen'. Burns , Tam Glen. I was long enough there and out I wad be, and out John Blower gat me, but wi' nae sma' fight and fend . Scott , St. Ronan's Well, xx.