Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Capable of being defended or of making defense.
- Pertaining to or composed of fencibles.
- n. A soldier enlisted for defense against invasion, and not liable to serve abroad: generally in the plural: as, the Warwickshire fencibles.
Wiktionary
- adj. Capable of being defended
- n. A militia unit raised for homeland defense.
- n. A soldier in such a unit.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. obsolete Capable of being defended, or of making or affording defense.
- n. (Mil.) A soldier enlisted for home service only; -- usually in the pl.
Etymologies
- Latin defendere to defend (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Where is the roll of fencible men liable to do suit and service to the Halidome? —”
“About nine-and-twenty years ago, the fencible men of Col were reckoned one hundred and forty, which is the sixth of eight hundred and forty; and probably some contrived to be left out of the list.”
“What I had in my mind was that I might count on you taking a company of our fencible men, as John here is going to do, and going over-bye to Lorn with me to cut off those”
John Splendid The Tale of a Poor Gentleman, and the Little Wars of Lorn
“At the general meeting of the fencible corps at Cunningham, Lord”
“In his fifteenth year he enlisted in a fencible regiment, which was afterwards stationed at Inverness.”
The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume IV. The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century
“He then incited his hearers to take arms for the Chevalier, under the title of King James the Seventh; and told them, that for his part, he was determined to set up his standard and to summon all the fencible men of his own tenants, and with them to hazard his life in the cause.”
“I haven't been yet to offer myself as a sea-fencible, and I ought to have done it long ago.”
“Not being able to decide whether to enrol himself as a sea-fencible, a local militia-man, or a volunteer, he simply went on dancing attendance upon Anne.”
“Almost all of them had felt his power; almost all, in withdrawing their fencible men from their own glens, left their families and property exposed to his vengeance; all, without exception, were desirous of diminishing his sovereignty; and most of them lay so near his territories, that they might reasonably hope to be gratified by a share of his spoil.”
“The only thing she could hope to see was the happy return of the fishing-smacks, and perhaps the "London trader," inasmuch as the fishermen (now released from fencible duty and from French alarm) did their best to return on Saturday night to their moorings, their homes, the disposal of fish, and then the deep slumber of Sunday.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘fencible’.
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19 c.
some of the interesting words i've had to look up while reading 19th century lit
maugre, connate, alembic, azote, vaticination, valetudinarian, dight, scutcheon, lammergeyer, chamois, asseverate, prebendary and 199 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for fencible.
jaime_d From Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution Mar 6, 2011