fencing

1. 1
   noununcountable

   Fences collectively, used to enclose or block off an area, or the material they are built from.

   The contractor installed wire fencing around the construction site.

   Miles of wooden fencing enclosed the cattle ranch.

   Similarrailing, paling

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The art or sport of dueling with swords, especially the European dueling swords of the 17th and 18th centuries and the practice weapons descended from them.

   He competed in fencing at the national championships.

   Modern fencing uses electronic scoring to detect each touch.

   Note

   The discipline is usually a mass noun, but the word can also be counted. In the plural it names single exchanges of thrust and guard, and it readily turns figurative. Alan Dundes's Mother Wit from the Laughing Barrel (1973) has a pair who "indulge in a series of fencings and parryings" in hope of a touch. Paired with parrying this way, it reads as sparring without steel.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   The receiving and buying of stolen goods, typically in order to resell them.

   Fencing is risky work because the goods can be traced back to robberies.

   The detective uncovered a fencing operation moving jewelry across state lines.

4. 4
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of fence.

   Workers are fencing the perimeter of the new factory.

   She has been fencing competitively since her college years.

   Note

   The -ing form carries every sense of the verb, and whether it takes an object tells you which one. With an object it encloses or guards (fencing the perimeter) or trades in stolen goods. Without one it means sword-fighting, jumping a fence, or hedging an answer, as when a witness keeps fencing under questioning. As a gerund it shades into the sport's name and the barrier material.

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