• IPA: /fɛns/, [fɛns], [fɛnts]

fence

1. A thin artificial barrier that separates two pieces of land or a house perimeter.
2. Someone who hides or buys and sells stolen goods, a criminal middleman for transactions of stolen goods.
   • 1920, Mary Roberts Rinehart; Avery Hopwood, chapter I, in The Bat: A Novel from the Play (Dell Book; 241), New York, N.Y.: Dell Publishing Company, OCLC 20230794 ↗, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hwptej;view=1up;seq=5 page 01]:

     The Bat—they called him the Bat. […]. He'd never been in stir, the bulls had never mugged him, he didn't run with a mob, he played a lone hand, and fenced his stuff so that even the fence couldn't swear he knew his face.

   1. The place whence such a middleman operates.
3. Skill in oral debate.
4. (obsolete, uncountable) The art or practice of fencing.
5. A guard or guide on machinery.
6. (figuratively) A barrier, for example an emotional barrier.
7. (computing, programming) A memory barrier.

• French: clôture
• German: Zaun; (Switzerland) Hag; (Namibia) Fence; (North America, South Africa (KwaZulu-Natal)) Fenz
• Italian: recinto, steccato, palizzata, cinta, siepe, barriera, riparo
• Portuguese: cerca
• Russian: забо́р
• Spanish: cerca, cerramiento, barda (Mexico), valla, seto

• French: recéleur, recéleuse, receleur, receleuse, fourgue
• German: Hehler, Hehlerin
• Italian: ricettatore
• Portuguese: receptador
• Russian: ску́пщик краденый
• Spanish: perista, (Americas) reducidor

fence (fences, present participle fencing; past and past participle fenced)

1. (transitive) To enclose, contain or separate by building fence.
2. (transitive) To defend or guard.
3. (transitive) To engage in the selling or buying of stolen goods.
   • 1920, Mary Roberts Rinehart; Avery Hopwood, chapter I, in The Bat: A Novel from the Play (Dell Book; 241), New York, N.Y.: Dell Publishing Company, OCLC 20230794 ↗, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hwptej;view=1up;seq=5 page 01]:

     The Bat—they called him the Bat. […]. He'd never been in stir, the bulls had never mugged him, he didn't run with a mob, he played a lone hand, and fenced his stuff so that even the fence couldn't swear he knew his face.

4. (intransitive, sports) To engage in the sport of fencing.
5. (intransitive, equestrianism) To jump over a fence.
6. (intransitive) To conceal the truth by giving equivocal answers; to hedge; to be evasive.

• (to sell or buy stolen goods) pawn

• French: clôturer
• German: (depending on the exact context) befrieden, einfrieden, einfriedigen, einhegen, einzäunen, umfrieden, umfriedigen, umzäunen, zäunen; (Switzerland) einhagen; (regional, especially North America, South Africa (KwaZulu-Natal)) fenzen
• Portuguese: cercar
• Russian: огора́живать
• Spanish: cercar

• German: hehlen
• Russian: барыжить

• German: fechten
• Portuguese: esgrimir
• Russian: фехтова́ть