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

Images on social media showed a person scaling the fence in a costume that included a smiley face head with sunglasses, prompting the monkeys to scatter.

From Barron's • May 18, 2026

In a Feb. 14 letter to the crew’s families after the second extension was announced, he wrote that he had expected to be home within weeks, fixing the fence in his backyard.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 21, 2026

Ahead of his speech, Netanyahu's office ordered that the Israeli military mount loudspeakers on trucks near the Gaza perimeter fence in order to broadcast his words live across the territory.

From BBC • Sep. 26, 2025

Not just with the erection of the fence in Hungary but, among several examples, the deployment of riot police in Croatia, and migrants being detained in Slovenia.

From BBC • Sep. 3, 2025

He was forever painting his house and the white picket fence in front of it.

From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck

Related Words

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