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unfenced

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Etymology

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From un- +‎ fenced.

Adjective

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unfenced (not comparable)

  1. Not fenced.
    1. (of animals or people) Not enclosed by a fence and thus free to roam over a wider area.
      Hypernyms: unhampered, untrammeled
      Coordinate term: unfettered
      Near-synonym: free-range
      • 1858, The Journal of the Kilkenny and South-east of Ireland Archaeological Society:
        Ireland must have remained utterly unfenced and, therefore, uncultivated, for many a century; and the sparse tribes that inhabited the country must have principally subsisted venatically.
    2. (of lands, real estate, etc.) Not enclosed by a fence and thus more easily approachable, visitable, encroachable, attackable, and so on.
      Synonym: fenceless
      Hyponym: unstockaded
      Coordinate terms: unmoated; unwalled, wall-less; untrammeled; (sometimes coinstantial but often not) undefended, defenceless, defenseless
      • 1941 May, W. Dendy, “The Cyprus Government Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 201:
        The line is unfenced, except in the vicinity of stations, and runs across the treeless Mesaorian plain for the whole distance between Famagusta and Nicosia.
      • 2023 January 11, Richard Foster, “British Rail's weirdest railways...: Wisbech & Upwell Tramway”, in RAIL, number 974, page 46:
        It was a rural railway that served the fertile Fens of Cambridgeshire and Norfolk. But because it flanked public roads and was unfenced (to save costs), it was deemed a tramway and its locomotives had to be fitted with a cowcatcher.
    3. (figuratively) Without protection.
      Synonyms: fenceless; undefended, defenceless, defenseless
      • 1662, Henry More, An Antidote Against Atheism, Book II, A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More, p. 81:
        She [Nature] has made the hinder part of the Head, more strong, as being otherwise unfenced against falls and other casualties.

Verb

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unfenced

  1. simple past and past participle of unfence

Translations

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