Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An officer, or one of a board of officers, whose duty it is to require and supervise the erection and maintenance of boundary-fences between adjoining owners, or along the highway, when called upon to do so by any party in interest.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Impersonating a town sealer, auctioneer, corder of wood, or a fence-viewer is against the law.

    Craziest Laws in America 2007

  • Impersonating a town sealer, auctioneer, corder of wood, or a fence-viewer is against the law.

    Archive 2007-01-01 2007

  • And, besides, Mr. Solomon Rapid contended that all offices, from president down to fence-viewer, were open to every white American citizen; and that every republican had a blood-bought right to seek any that struck his fancy; and if the profits were less, or the duties more onerous than had been anticipated, that a man ought to resign and try another.

    The Wit and Humor of America, Volume III. (of X.) Various 1887

  • The fence-viewer decides the matter, and charges a small fee for his services.

    Civil Government in the United States Considered with Some Reference to Its Origins John Fiske 1871

  • "I began a tremendous political career during the election, having made two stump speeches of an hour and a half each, -- after you went away, -- one in Dedham town-hall and one in Jamaica Plain, with such eminent success that many invitations came to me from the surrounding villages, and if I had continued in active political life I might have risen to be vote-distributor, or fence-viewer, or selectman, or hog-reeve, or something of the kind."

    John Lothrop Motley, A Memoir — Complete Oliver Wendell Holmes 1851

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