sunk fence

American  

noun

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

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sunk fence British  

noun

1. Also called: ha-ha. 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

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Etymology

Origin of sunk fence

First recorded in 1755–65

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sunk fence

So I went and got hold of a ripping good place in a kind of sunk fence.

From Deep Moat Grange by S. R. (Samuel Rutherford) Crockett

The wall is often concealed in a sunk fence, in order to give an idea of greater extent.

From Travels in China, Containing Descriptions, Observations, and Comparisons, Made and Collected in the Course of a Short Residence at the Imperial Palace of Yuen-Min-Yuen, and on a Subsequent Journey through the Country from Pekin to Canton by Sir John Barrow

He touched the pony with his whip, and turning off the main avenue, drew up at the bottom of one of the lawns, before a sunk fence.

From The Moving Finger by E. Phillips (Edward Phillips) Oppenheim

There is not much garden between it and the Park, which goes on for miles, and begins at the sunk fence over yonder.

From When Ghost Meets Ghost by William Frend De Morgan

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

From Robert Elsmere by Mrs. Humphry Ward

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