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

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sunk fence

The white figure stood on the little bridge which led over the sunk fence into the meadow.

From Helena's Path by Hope, Anthony

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

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

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

From Robert Elsmere by Ward, Humphry, Mrs.

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 De Morgan, William Frend

And in Spring what a choir of nightingales sang in the gnarled whitethorn trees by the sunk fence, and in late summer what myriads of grasshoppers chirruped in the twilight.

From The Passionate Elopement by MacKenzie, Compton