ppl. a. [UN-1 8.]
1. Undefended, unprotected.
1548. Elyot, Immunitus, not defended, not fortified, vnfensed.
1585. Holinshed, Hist. Scot., in Chron., II. 408/2. Iedworth [is] a towne which after the manner of the countrie is vnwalled and vnfensed, but onelie with the strength of the inhabitants.
1646. J. Hall, Horæ Vac., 90. When a man is in earnest, he stands upon his guard; in mirth he lies open unfenc’t.
1654. trans. Martini’s Conq. China, 115. The Chineses ran all away…, leaving the whole shore unfenced to their landing.
1791. Cowper, Odyssey, XI. 316. Though puissant Heroes both, in spacious Thebes, Unfenced by towers, they could not dwell secure.
1867. Morris, Jason, VI. 331. For the unfenced head, Where we have been, soon rests among the dead.
2. Not provided with, or enclosed by, a fence or fences.
1608. Presentment, in Essex Rev., XV. 46. The churchyard is unfensed, the windows unglazed.
1623. Lisle, Ælfric on O. & N. Test., Ded. xviii. This three-cornerd Ile on ev’ry side, Unfens’d, undelv’d, ungardined.
1725. Fam. Dict., s.v. Melonry, These take in three Ridges, only the outermost Ridge lies to the South unfenced.
1794. Miss Berry, Jrnl. (1865), I. 448. The country, tho’ not without trees, is,… perfectly open and unfenced and unditched.
1847. Longf., Evang., I. i. 9. Orchards and cornfields Spreading afar and unfenced o’er the plain.
1885. Law Rep., 14 Q.B.D. 918. The footpath ran over an open moor and was unfenced.
b. Not provided with a ledge, guard, or the like.
1683. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., Printing, xxiv. ¶ 11. He might draw too great a body of Inck to the unfenced sides; so that the Inck would be subject to run off.
1894. Daily News, 4 July, 3/3. Machine after machine was found thus unfenced, the workpeople being too indifferent to take the trouble of putting them on.
