spite fence
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of spite fence
An Americanism dating back to 1895–1900
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
And has he mellowed in old age?—for the spite fence is torn down!
From Project Gutenberg
It came to be called the spite fence.
From New York Times
State, Justice and Defense Department officials worked up the reprisal that, with White House approval, was put into effect last week�a sort of spite fence around some 400 Soviet citizens in the U.S.
From Time Magazine Archive
He got some idea 21 years ago when his neighbor in Scarsdale built a 6-ft. spite fence between their houses.
From Time Magazine Archive
An undertaker who owned a small house in the same block refused to sell it; Crocker built a spite fence 40 feet high, completely enclosing his neighbor's home.
From Time Magazine Archive
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
