fence-sit

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English[edit]

Verb[edit]

fence-sit (third-person singular simple present fence-sits, present participle fence-sitting, simple past and past participle fence-sat)

  1. (intransitive, idiomatic, rare) To sit on the fence (to remain neutral on a certain topic).
    • 1980, Jane Adamson, Othello As Tragedy: Some Problems of Judgement and Feeling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 12:
      My point, therefore, in beginning with what everyone knows are the two main views of Othello (and hence Othello) is not to adjudicate between them, nor to dismiss both, nor to fence-sit, but to suggest that each answers to something important in the play – which also means that each underestimates something important as well.