unfenced en · ADJ
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Indo-European *n̥- Proto-Germanic *un- Proto-West Germanic *un- Old English un- Middle English un- English un- English fenced English unfenced From un- + fenced.
Meanings
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(not-comparable, of animals or people) Not fenced. ▸ Not enclosed by a fence and thus free to roam over a wider area.
Ireland must have remained utterly unfenced and, therefore, uncultivated, for many a century; and the sparse tribes that inhabited the country must have principally subsisted venatically.
1858, The Journal of the Kilkenny and South-east of Ireland Archaeological Society:Near-synonym: free-range
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(not-comparable, of lands, usually) Not fenced. ▸ Not enclosed by a fence and thus more easily approachable, visitable, encroachable, attackable, and so on.
It was a rural railway that served the fertile Fens of Cambridgeshire and Norfolk. But because it flanked public roads and was unfenced (to save costs), it was deemed a tramway and its locomotives had to be fitted with a cowcatcher.
2023 January 11, Richard Foster, “British Rail's weirdest railways...: Wisbech & Upwell Tramway”, in RAIL, number 974, page 46:The line is unfenced, except in the vicinity of stations, and runs across the treeless Mesaorian plain for the whole distance between Famagusta and Nicosia.
1941 May, W. Dendy, “The Cyprus Government Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 201:
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(figuratively, not-comparable) Not fenced. ▸ Without protection.
She [Nature] has made the hinder part of the Head, more strong, as being otherwise unfenced against falls and other casualties.
1662, Henry More, An Antidote Against Atheism, Book II, A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More, p. 81
Coordinates
unwalled · unmoated · unfettered · defenseless · defenceless · untrammeled · undefended · wall-less
Hypernyms
Synonyms
defenseless · defenceless · fenceless · undefended · fenceless · free-range