Sc. and dial. [f. next vb.]

1

  1.  A shift or effort which one makes for oneself. To make a fend: to make a venture.

2

a. 1724.  The Borrowstoun Mous and the Lanwart Mous, in Ramsay, Evergreen, I. 144.

        Quhyle on the Corns and Wraith of labouring Men,
  As Outlaws do, scho maid an easy Fen.

3

1794.  Burns, Tam Glen, ii.

        I ’m thinking, wi’ sic a braw fallow,
  In poortith I might mak a fen’.

4

a. 1810.  Tannahill, Poems (1846), 25.

        I think, through life I’ll make a canny fen’,
Wi hurcheon Nancy o’ the hazle glen.

5

1824.  Scott, St. Ronan’s, xx. Out I wad be, and out John Bowler gat me, but wi’ nae sma fight and fend.

6

1855.  Robinson, Whitby Gloss. ‘They make a good fend for a living.’

7

1877.  Holderness Gloss., ‘He disn’t seem to mak a bit o’ fend.’

8

  2.  Activity in making shifts for oneself, energy.

9

1788.  Marshall, Yorksh. Gloss., Fend, activity, management, assiduity, prowess.

10

1876.  Whitby Gloss.

11

  3.  Provisions, fare.

12

1804.  Tarras, Poems, 54.

        I ne’er was great, sae ne’er was proud,
Nae sumptuous fend, but hamely food.

13

‡ 4.  Naut. = FENDER. Obs.

14

1658.  Phillips, Fends, things hung over a Ships side to keep another Ship from rubbing against it.

15

  5.  Comb., as fend-bolt (Naut.) = FENDER. 2 b; fend-full a. Sc., full of shifts or expedients.

16

1678.  Phillips, Fenders, pieces of old Cables [etc.] … hung over a Ships side … called also *Fend-bolts.

17

1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Fend or Fender Bolts, made with long and thick heads, struck into the outermost bends or wales of a ship, to save her sides from hurts and bruises.

18

1820.  Blackw. Mag., VIII., Dec., 321/1. Else yere grown less *fendfou than I ever saw ye.

19