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fence in

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Idioms and Phrases

Also, hem in . Restrict or confine someone, as in He wanted to take on more assignments but was fenced in by his contract , or Their father was old-fashioned and the children were hemmed in by his rules . Both expressions transfer a literal form of enclosure to a figurative one. The first gained currency from a popular song in the style of a cowboy folk song by Cole Porter, “Don't Fence Me In” (1944), in which the cowboy celebrates open land and starry skies. The variant is much older, dating from the late 1500s.

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

In the picture, Cyrus dons a pair of green bunny ears and gives Hurley a kiss on the cheek as they lean against a wooden fence in a lush pasture.

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Goranson: In a Connerian way — is that a new term? — no one’s getting the white picket fence in the suburbs unless it’s way in the suburbs.

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Eight homes will be built on the site, according to a notice tied to the fence in front of the empty patch of land.

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Caught on the patio between the flames and the bomb blast, Cabler had to find another way out, but the area was completely fenced in.

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Supplies for migrants at a field camp run by the American Friends Service Committee that is set up next to the border fence in San Diego.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

fence fence lizard

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