Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To ward off. Often used with off:
- intransitive verb Archaic To defend.
- intransitive verb To make an effort to resist.
- intransitive verb To attempt to manage without assistance.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The shift which one makes for one's self, whether for sustenance or in any other respect; self-defense or self-support.
- To defend; protect; guard.
- To keep off; prevent from entering or impinging; ward off; forbid: usually followed by off: as, to
fend off blows. Comparefen . - To support; maintain.
- To act in opposition; offer resistance.
- To parry; fence.
- To make provision; give care.
- noun A Middle English form of
fiend .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To keep off; to prevent from entering or hitting; to ward off; to shut out; -- often with
off . - transitive verb (Naut.) to prevent its running against anything with too much violence.
- intransitive verb To act on the defensive, or in opposition; to resist; to parry; to shift off.
- noun obsolete A fiend.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb intransitive To
take care of oneself, to takeresponsibility for oneself. - verb rare To
defend , totake care of (typically construed withfor ); to block or push away (typically construed withoff ). - noun An
enemy ;fiend ; theDevil .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb try to manage without help
- verb withstand the force of something
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word fend.
Examples
-
And we were quite disturbed at the end of it, when we found that Rosario had actually put a false name on this note that he shoved in the baby ` s diaper and just left him the way that he did in this parking lot, and as you had mentioned, defenseless, to kind of fend for himself.
-
TIMONEY: Well, that's a-- my understanding is, and I don't know too much about that case, but my understanding was this young 15-year - old may have been bullied in school and brought it with him to school just to kind of fend off bullies.
-
"This is not an intended strike (but) Weyman has adopted a technique with his fend which is highly reckless," Kite argued.
-
"This is not an intended strike (but) Weyman has adopted a technique with his fend which is highly reckless," Kite argued.
-
"This is not an intended strike (but) Weyman has adopted a technique with his fend which is highly reckless," Kite argued.
-
"Let's face it," Warren said, "This is sort of how we went about the rescue -- we rescued at the top and we left the bottom to kind of fend for itself -- and that's showing up in the unemployment numbers."
WHAT REALLY HAPPENED 2009
-
"Let's face it," Warren said, "This is sort of how we went about the rescue -- we rescued at the top and we left the bottom to kind of fend for itself -- and that's showing up in the unemployment numbers."
Jack & Jill Politics 2009
-
Instead, religions have had to fend for themselves in attracting, and retaining, members.
American Grace Robert D. Putnam 2010
-
There is another group who think that the best solution is to do away with all these pensions and let those people fend for themselves.
The Good Fight Walter F. Mondale 2010
-
There is another group who think that the best solution is to do away with all these pensions and let those people fend for themselves.
The Good Fight Walter F. Mondale 2010
fbharjo commented on the word fend
de-fend, of-fend
March 30, 2009
thtownse commented on the word fend
I was thinking about this word today - to me it is pretty interesting because in its atomic form it only exists in common usage as part of two idiomatic expressions ("Fend for yourself", "Fend off an attack"). Can anyone think of any more? It also lives as the core of the words "offend" and "defend", and the only other one I can think of is "fender". It sounds like it has a relationship with "fence".
May 6, 2010
hernesheir commented on the word fend
Latin fendere to strike. Sometimes offense is the best defense. See also definitions and uses of forfend.
May 6, 2010
thtownse commented on the word fend
Forfend - interesting word, but I would not call it common. The four examples in Wordnik have it part of the "Heaven Forfend" expression or a variant thereof.
May 6, 2010