Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The art or sport of using a foil, épée, or saber in attack and defense.
- n. Skillful repartee, especially as a defense against having to give direct answers.
- n. Material, such as wire, stakes, and rails, used in building fences.
- n. A barrier or enclosure of fences.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The art of using a sword or foil in attack and defense, or practice for improvement or the exhibition of skill in that art.
- n. That which fences; an inclosure or fence; the fences collectively.
- n. Specifically, a protection put round a dangerous piece of machinery; brattishing.
- n. Material used in making fences.
Wiktionary
- v. present participle of fence.
- n. The art or sport of duelling with swords, especially with the 17th to 18th century European dueling swords and the practice weapons decended from them (sport fencing)
- n. Material used to make fences, fences used as barriers or an enclosure.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The art or practice of attack and defense with the sword, esp. with the smallsword. See fence, v. i., 2.
- n. Disputing or debating in a manner resembling the art of fencers.
- n. U.S. The materials used for building fences.
- n. The act of building a fence.
- n. The aggregate of the fences put up for inclosure or protection.
WordNet 3.0
- n. material for building fences
- n. a barrier that serves to enclose an area
- n. the art or sport of fighting with swords (especially the use of foils or epees or sabres to score points under a set of rules)
Examples
“II. i.25 (197,8) drinking, fencing, swearing] I suppose, by _fencing_ is meant a too diligent frequentation of the fencing-school, a resort of violent and lawless young men.”
“Taormina fell behind with a rough start in fencing, which is new to her, but made up the gap quickly in the swim and overhauled the leaders in the run to finish with 5,704 points in her debut.”
USATODAY.com - Athlete of the Week breezes through Windy City
“The technical term for this kind of fencing is Krieg - WAR.”
“Also: les gants fourrés = fur-lined gloves un gâteau fourré à la crême = a cream-filled cake un coup fourré = an exchanged hit, double hit (in fencing)”
“BEIJING -- The women's sabre in fencing likely is one of the three best chances for the USA to sweep an Olympic event, along with the men's shot put and men's BMX cycling.”
“Gaps in fencing surrounding Harborough's new £300,000 play area at Welland Park could encourage foxes to use the area as a toilet, councillors have warned.”
“The third mission, I believe he replaces some well trained guy on a planet where fencing is common.”
“Get use to it, high fencing is coming at an alarming rate.”
“We got picket fencing from a friend of my husbands, whose neighbor torn it out of his yard so he could put up something "modern.”
“The fencing is athletic and exciting, especially the climactic duel on a wonderful staircase.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘fencing’.
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• Wordies talk about themselves
Sometimes users are also persons.
llogos, peter stickles, old age, 39, insomnia, frown of approval, chuck norris, ovular, gay, fencing, rabbits, seven empty cups ... and 137 more...
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SPOR - Olympic glossary
weightlift, orbitale, figure skate, speed skate, synchronizer, equestrian sport, bobsleigh, starting block, diesis, ligne, piste, water ski and 521 more...
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IMCO - EU nomenclature
includes words of the "Prodcom list"
abaca, abdominal, abrasive, absorbent, absorber, accelerator, accessory, account book, accumulator, acebutolol, acetaldehyde, acetamide and 4515 more...
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Chop Socky
Martial arts. Hi-ya!
karate, boxing, savate, kung fu, tae kwon do, pankration, kendo, ninjitsu, capoeira, kickboxing, tessenjutsu, hapkido and 11 more...
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Summer Olympics - Beijing 2008
All things to do with the modern Summer Olympics
free tibet, flame, torch relay, host city, five rings, medal, delegate, official, athlete, team, contingent, sport and 72 more...
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Words Covered in Faery Dust (F)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
faery, fairy cross, fairy ring, falcon, fare-thee-well, farewell-summer, farthing, faun, fawn, felicitous, felicity, fencing and 109 more...
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Dain's Words
rabble, terminus, archaic, atavism, demiurge, waylay, syzygy, jocoserious, quark, entropy, cinnabar, shamble and 912 more...
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Favorite Verbs and Verb Forms
Culling my main Favorites list, and noticing how few of my favorite words are verbs. I'll have to work on that...
stupefy, eschew, gurgle, affianced, imbue, disconcerting, schlep, begrimed, wizened, woolgathering, lounge, flank and 94 more...
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Sportie: Combat
boxing, ring, punching bag, round, hook, uppercut, jab, corner, southpaw, wrestling, greco-roman, wrestler and 25 more...
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Only in the Olympics
These sports only matter when your country's medal count is at stake
synchronized swim..., rhythmic gymnastics, greco-roman wrest..., short-track speed..., archery, curling, fencing, women's ice hockey, field hockey, kickboxing, judo, figure skating and 4 more...
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Wide Wordie of Sports
soccer, baseball, football, basketball, polo, handball, triathlon, biathlon, heptathlon, decathlon, parkour, boxing and 56 more...
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sport
amateur, trainer, car racing, athlete, athletics, hunting, fishing, basketball, baseball, horse riding, boxing, gymnastics and 12 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for fencing.
whichbe I want this to be what fence-sitters do. Feb 12, 2009
chained_bear You could stream the Olympics live; I haven't visited the site again to see if they've archived any of the fencing bouts, but there's a good chance. Aug 28, 2008
frindley I'll check it out. Alas, I don't have a television and the Olympic coverage here was not conducive to the gatecrashing of friends' homes for the purpose of watching an arcane sport. Sigh.
I will investigate The Duellists. Aug 28, 2008
chained_bear The frindley, if she is still interested in watching awesome realistic swordplay, should try to get the frindley's hands on a film called "The Duellists," with Harvey Keitel and Keith Carradine. My fencing/stage combat instructors made us watch it repeatedly, and now with DVD remotes you can slow down the action and see what they do.
Also, did you see the Olympic fencing last week? Thrilling bouts. A fencing coach/friend of ours is fond of telling people that the second-fastest object in the Olympics is the tip of a fencer's foil. The only thing faster is, of course, a bullet. Aug 28, 2008
frindley The frindley took up fencing when she was, well, too old. (All the best fencers begin at the age of six or so, like ballet I guess.)
And why? Mainly because she was suffering, in the professional environment, from a particularly obnoxious and petty boss. And so it seemed like the right time to pursue a long-held dream while enjoying general catharsis. She was also somewhat inspired by the Australian conductor, Simone Young, also a fencer, who once talked about how conducting and fencing both involve waving a stick, but with conducting you are trying to communicate intent, whereas with fencing you are trying to conceal intent. Very interesting thought. She had probably seen The Fencing Master on television as well, and had spent her childhood reading books like the Scarlet Pimpernel and other period romances. Oh, and the oft-quoted analogy of fencing being like chess speeded up probably had an influence too.
A postscript. Given her story, the frindley was especially amused by this site, which offers "fencing" as a corporate team-building exercise. (A "modern, collaborative experience" is their way of describing it.) Sounds dodgy to me. Aug 28, 2008