fence in

Idioms  

1. Also, hem in. Restrict or confine someone, as in He wanted to take on more assignments but was fenced in by his contract, or Their father was old-fashioned and the children were hemmed in by his rules. Both expressions transfer a literal form of enclosure to a figurative one. The first gained currency from a popular song in the style of a cowboy folk song by Cole Porter, “Don't Fence Me In” (1944), in which the cowboy celebrates open land and starry skies. The variant is much older, dating from the late 1500s.

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Example Sentences

Chesterton’s parable: If you stumble on a fence in the middle of the road, don’t take it down until you know why it’s there.

From The Wall Street Journal

It soon rendered fields impossible to plough, as lines of the goblet-shaped bushes, many of them three feet across, formed impenetrable natural fences in the paths of tractors.

From The Wall Street Journal

A tree also fell on a fence in Santa Rosa.

From Los Angeles Times

The East Germans were building walls across the most heavily populated areas but stuck with fences in other places.

From Literature

Mr. Simon’s record was also one of the first to grasp the mid-’70s ennui of a generation fenced in by marital responsibilities and yearning for its earlier, wilder self.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• apprehend
• commit
• detain
• hold
• incarcerate
• jail
• lock up
• remand