sunk fence


noun
  1. a wall or other barrier set in a ditch to divide lands without marring the landscape.

Origin of sunk fence

1
First recorded in 1755–65

Words Nearby sunk fence

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use sunk fence in a sentence

  • In the garden stood Rose, on the edge of the sunk fence dividing the Rectory domain from the cornfield.

    Robert Elsmere | Mrs. Humphry Ward
  • Close by was the sunk fence and the tiny rustic bridge—only a plank or two—which spanned it.

  • He had come to her as usual from out the gloom, just as she was about to cross the little bridge which spanned the sunk fence.

  • Its garden surrounded by a sunk fence could be seen, and the figure of a lady walking in it.

    The Coryston Family | Mrs. Humphry Ward
  • There she made for a huge oak, which gloomed in the moonlight by the sunk fence parting the grounds.

    Mary Marston | George MacDonald

British Dictionary definitions for sunk fence

sunk fence

noun
  1. a ditch, one side of which is made into a retaining wall so as to enclose an area of land while remaining hidden in the total landscape: Also called: ha-ha

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012